CzechDesign.cz

Jana Vinšová – 29.09.2007

Interview with Roberto and Ludovica Palomba, Italian architects and designers.

What is the process from inspiration to lifestyle? How long this process usually takes and what are the single steps?

For us, each project is unique and unrepeatable, there is no set process. What we can say for sure though is that the relationship with the client is fundamental, strategic. There is no design if there is no designer and manufacturer. Companies are made up of people so.... relationships can be intense, wonderful, long-term or 'one night stands', sometimes love stories or moments of passion, the best fruits of these relationships are products of incredible beauty that like children, might have their mother's eyes and father's jawline. During the most creative phase, the ideas phase, we are real 'jugglers with geometric forms', we like to throw them up in the air, catch them and then make them turn in space in a mix of eroticism and rationality.

I read in the book of you: Bathrooms. From inspiration to lifestyle that your motto is: Cogito ergo sum - "I think, therefore I am". But what do good design products need for ”therefore they are” in your opinion?

Our products, like our architecture, are timeless. A design has to express a thought, not just be simply related to a trend, a passing fashion. Only in this way can our message then be read and understood in 50/60 years time. As the great Coco Chanel said: “la mode de mode”. Our designs are conceived to last, not to be meteors in the design universe.

Senses: smell, sight, hearing, taste, touch take effect on persons feelings, how important are for you in your work?

Think with your senses, feel with your mind, is the title of the recent Venice biennale curated by Robert Storr. A good suggestion for interpreting art at present, but also our design.

What is most inspirational thing, place or time for you?

To quote the title of Paul Smith's recent book, you can find inspiration in everything, is also our claim. Everything inspires us: our continual travels, reading, talking to the guys in the studio,... you have to be open, become the intermediary between what exists in our fantasy and what will become a life companion for others, in other words our products, our architecture.

What have changed in the design evolution since the time you started to work as a designer?

Design today has certainly gone off course. Too much fashion and too little sense of responsibility. We don't need fashion, we need poetry. We are much closer to the school of great masters than to the idea of the archi-star, linked to fashionable styles, trendy.

How many people work in your team? What is the design process in your team? Do you like working with young people?

We have around 15 architects and a few on work experiences. Our studio is more like a kind of creative factory than a typical office. We are like a real extended family where the shared element is not our blood but the same vision of the world, of design, of art. We eat together, go to exhibitions, go out in the evening,…but most of all we talk a lot. The research and development phase for us is always very important.

You also teach at the Polytechnic, can your students change your opinion, bring you another view or be inspirational for you?

I'm always very intrigued to hear what young people think, with their fresh approach. But my task is to educate them, give them a 'complete' vision of design, help them to grow in all fields of design, encouraging them to be independent but checking their every step. A kind of fatherly attitude I know but I don't let them get away with anything either. Ours is a difficult job, a big responsibility having the opportunity, with our products, to enter into people's homes all over the world.

Do you have any challenges in your job? Something which is in your mind but still not in a sketch-book?

We'd like to come up with 'a designer house for the masses'. We don't mean a utopian experiment like a first-year university project but something realistic that would really help everyone to live their lives in a simple but not banal way.

I know you travel a lot; can you compare different ways in design progress in different countries? Did you realize anything what would you like to point out?

Travelling is certainly one of our greatest sources of inspiration. The world now is a single machine dominated by the butterfly effect of chaos theory. A butterfly flaps its wings in Beijing and New York gets rain instead of sun. Of course we should also safeguard individual identity. The Italian culture, for example, is one of the most ancient and intellectual in the world. In continuity with the great masters that went before us, when we design an object, a piece of architecture, an interior we don't forget that we are the descendants of Michelangelo, Leonardo or....even Giorgio Armani.

So what projects have you worked on up to now?

At the moment we are dedicating all our capacity and invention to defining democratic and functional products for all homes. Distinctive, quality products with international appeal but at all levels, all over the world.

Thank you very much for the little insight into your professional life.

Roberto Palomba is a guest of this year Designblok, you can visit his lecture on Friday, 5^th October at 2pm, in Superstudio, Thamova Street, Prague 8.

Roberto Palomba, an Italian architect and designer, was born in Cagliari. Ludovica+Roberto Palomba, architects and designers, founded Palomba Serafini Associati in 1994.

Palomba Serafini Associati work in the fields of architecture, industrial design, exhibition design, art direction, communications and marketing consulting. Since 2003, Roberto Palomba has also been a professor at the Polytechnic of Milan, Industrial Design Department. In recent years he has participated in many design workshops as a visiting professor or senior tutor. Ludovica+Roberto Palomba are currently acting as art directors for: Crassevig, Kos, Swan, Zucchetti and developing a project of design management for Tubes.

They have been art directors for Bosa, Flaminia, Iris, Schiffini. Clients: Antolini, Bisazza, Boffi, Bonacina Pierantonio, Bosa, Brix, Cappellini, Crassevig, De Vecchi, Dornbracht, Flaminia, Foscarini, Hoesch, Kos, Laufen Bathrooms AG, Lancia, Lema, Livi’t, Moroso, Orizzonti, Poltrona Frau, Rapsel, Salviati, Sawaya & Moroni, Schiffini, Tisettanta, Tronconi, Tubes, Viccarbe, Ycami, Zanotta, Zucchetti.

Palomba Serafini Associati is based in Milan.