The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : With designs on the way we lead our lives

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Thursday, Dec 13, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

With designs on the way we lead our lives

Correspondent

The 7th CII-NID Design Summit is being held in Bangalore

Innovative: (From left) Darlie O. Koshy, director of the National Institute of Design; Vikram Kirloskar, chairman, CII National Committee on Design; and Arturo Dell’Acqua Bellavitis, vice-president, Triennale, looking at a dining table at the 7th CII-NID Design Summit in Bangalore on Wednesday.

BANGALORE: When you think of Italy, if the image of the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the mafia pops up, then it is time to think again. Italian design rules the world, and it commands 50 per cent of the global design share. Be it leather goods, apparel, furniture or automobiles, Italian design is the most sought after around the globe.

The exhibition “100 objects of Italian design” being held at the 7th CII-NID Design Summit in Hall No. 3 of the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre on Tumkur Road presents some of the most important and representative works in the history of Italian design since the end of the Second World War. Its intent is to illustrate the excellent research, design and experimentation carried out by Italian designers and companies.

Be it the 1946 model Vespa scooter designed by Corradino D’Ascanio, the Nobody’s Chair designed in 1993 by Gaetana Pesco, the Lexikon 80 typewriter or table lamps and coffee cups, each object represents an ensemble of cultural, manufacturing and design ideas.

Their unusual design, their innovative technology or materials and their ability to capture and convey the culture and trends of a certain period in time represent some of the most important achievements of Italian design.

Speaking to The Hindu, Arturo Dell’Acqua Bellavitis, vice-president of Triennale and professor at Politecnico di Milano, said that Italian designers address the needs of people through their innovations, and lot of thinking goes on before the product goes to the assembly line. “Our designers work closely with sociologists and anthropologists to understand the needs of the common man. The urge to innovate is need-based.

Because of narrow roads in our country, we invented the scooter.

In India, I have seen people keeping tomatoes in the egg rack of a refrigerator, and also here cars are driven by the chauffeur while the owner sits at the back where we Italians normally keep our baggage. Your design not only should emphasise aesthetics and poetics but also relate to people’s needs as well as comforts and conveniences,” Mr. Bellavitis said.

He added that efforts were on in Italy to design products that would suit the Indian as well as Chinese markets.

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