VLAG Group
Rony Chan - video editing, lecture photos
Mie Frey Damgaard - graphics
Nichon Glerum - interviewer, lecture images
Luke Jenkins - essays, workshop images
Kitikoon Worrasorratorn - video editing
Date
Workshop February 9-11, Lecture and Interview February 11
Workshop Images
Reportage
There are generally two rules for those who are invited to give Source lectures at the Design Academy: they must either be young, upcoming, and quickly rising, or a bit more mature and non-mainstream. Either way, the presenters do not have a long-standing fame to speak of. Perhaps between the lines the Academy may not be able to afford to pay for long-standing fame. So it came as a surprise when I found that I was to write a reportage on Alberto Meda, an Italian engineer-turned designer who many regard as a design idol.
Meda visited the Design Academy to run a three day workshop for the Man + Humanity students, which culminated in a general lecture on his work. Although his workshop built off of his most recent design, the humanitarian Solar Bottle, the designs which gave him most fame over the years were central to his lecture. These are artifacts of the post-industrial Italian design boom from the 1980’s and 1990’s, a time in which established production companies such as Kartell, Luceplan, Alessi, Olivetti, and Alfa Romeo Auto began to produce more “sophisticated” objects that focused on technical innovation rather than affordability. Meda, incidentally, worked with or for these companies, and many more, during this period. His work has become a paradigm for Italian design from those decades.
For instance, Meda presented Mix, a reading lamp produced by Luceplan in 2005, uses LED’s as a more energy efficient light source. Although this technology normally compromises the color balance of the light emitted, Meda and Luceplan were able to recreate pure white light, overcoming the given limits of this technology. It was subsequently awarded the “Light of the Future” and “Design Plus” awards in 2006. Four years later, Mix retails for €369, which, at least for me, is more expensive than the furniture I sit on while reading. It is indicative of the slim, minimal design coming out of Italy, which claims that the products that people surround themselves with should not visually or mentally interfere with one’s daily activities, give support when in use, and calmly disappear into the background when not needed.
Light Light, designed in 1984 and produced by Alias, was one of the pieces that helped Meda enter a design career from his background in engineering. It is a wonder of composite materials, utilizing the strengths of each material as reinforcement against the vulnerabilities of the other materials. Drawing from lightweight processes in the aerospace and racing industries, a honeycomb core of Nomex is sandwiched between layers of carbon fiber fabric. The result was the lightest traditional chair that had ever been industrially produced. Through economy of material and implementation of new materials, Meda was able to make this chair successful in 1984. However, in a contemporary context the worth of the piece may be more questionable. It does not address issues regarding the reuse of the chair, recyclability if it can’t be reused, or ethics/ecology of production methods.
Although it did not win Meda additional fame or awards, Partner, designed in 2000 for Kartell (and also designed with Paolo Rizzatto), suffers from a lack of ecological considerations before and after use. In this bookcase, two sheets of aluminum are used to rigidify a transparent plastic honeycomb structure. A special robot was designed to affix the sheets to the structure, using 80 plastic tacks for each shelf of the bookcase. Although this piece was produced in our current century, the hi-tech fabrication process has totally negated any chance at easily recycling the piece after it has reached its end of use. Tremendously stable (and relatively expensive), the object itself can be considered one that will be around for quite some time; most likely until the next time one redecorates, which is only a few years for the high-class establishments who purchase Kartell designs. The three designs mentioned above were all included in his lecture, as they were technological achievements. While they are very interesting from a design history perspective, I had hoped that he would show us more of a build-up to his groundbreaking (at least for his portfolio) Solar Bottle, which has been designed to purify water using only solar energy. Meda hopes that it will be sold for €1.50 when it is put into production in developing nations. When researching his design work, I found several pieces that won little acclaim, but that, like the Solar Bottle, were ethically sensitive.
Water, designed in 2001 for Arabia Finland, is a carafe meant to celebrate the use of tap water for those in developed countries. Drinking from the tap will reduce the amount of plastic bottles and other disposable storage vessels from entering the waste cycle. Kalura, a project for Alessi, combines hi-tech ceramics with an antiquated object: a food warmer. Made almost at the same time as Water, this piece re-presents a technology used by peasants to conserve the use of cooking fuel. As the ceramic stores heat very well, it can be used to keep food warm well after it has been cooked.
Water and Kalura, like the Solar Bottle, both question the dependence the “Western” world has on technological advancement over other environmental concerns and social sustainability. They are much more thoughtful of the user, and how the user can be ethically influenced by design products, than much of his other work. Although they share the same visual sensibilities of his other work, these pieces are not minimal in the sense that they mentally interfere with the daily activities of the user. These products may work towards maturing technological processes, but they exist as objects that respectfully take the user into consideration, and are hence more humanitarian in concept.
While I would like to think that the Solar Bottle is the turning point in the career of this highly respected designer, the work that he showed in his lecture mainly epitomizes the mark of a great designer married to the industry which he has spent his whole profession supporting. However, when I consider some of his other work, I feel encouraged by his statement nearing the end of his lecture, that the designer has an “ethical responsibility to educate.” Hopefully, we will see him produce more work that demonstrates interactive education, rather than products which blend into the commercial or domestic landscape as design camouflage, essentially forgotten both in and out of use.
Lecture Images
Editorial
2005 was a great year for hurricane lovers. Hurricane Wilma was the fourth storm to develop into a Cat 5, which is the highest strength. After it hit Cuba, and destroyed the tourist town of Cancún, Mexico, it brutalized southern Florida - it was one of the most destructive hurricanes to ever hit the Florida shores. All utility supply grids were damaged; most of South Florida had no electricity for weeks, and no running water for one week. Stores were closed, as there wasn’t electricity to keep them operating. The only water that my household had was the bathtub that we had half-heartedly filled in anticipation of a very weak storm. Rationing that water became a very important consideration, especially because we had no idea when running water would return to our area.
Cleaning, cooking, and drinking ceased to support one another, becoming adversaries all vying for attention. Finally, after almost one week, the bath was empty. The only option was to find a natural source of water, which, in the city of Fort Lauderdale, was the manmade canals used by yachts and other large vessels. Carrying a 20L bucket full of slimy, less than transparent water back to the apartment forced me to consider what modern infrastructure has gifted us with: the opportunity to worry about other things. When we returned to the apartment, it was time to boil the water down, to kill bacteria and hopefully boil off any petroleum. Luckily, the stovetop was heated with natural gas, so the water could be boiled without making a wood fire. Although I was doubtful that boiling the water would remove all impurities, it would most likely not make us sick. Giving one last twist to the water faucet, I was surprised to hear groans and spurts from the water pipes. Running water had been restored while we were on our water retrieval adventure. Relief.
Fast forward four years - I am a student at the Design Academy. When I learned that I would be attending a three day design workshop on water use and sanitation, I was intrigued. Organized for the Man + Humanity Department, the design charrette was fronted by Alberto Meda. Not knowing much about him, I went online to find out more. The results of my research made me quite skeptical of his value to a program based in humanitarian design. He is something of a design giant in Italy and a known name in the rest of the world for pieces which are minimal, elegant, and expensive. This type of design is precisely what many of us in the program intend to avoid designing.
It seemed that the Solar Bottle, designed by himself and Francisco Gomez Paz, was the only object that he had designed that took people’s basic survival needs into consideration. Much of the rest was office furniture that was more about pushing technology and materials and less about rethinking how normal people use these objects. So I looked further into this piece. It seemed to be very well thought out, and was intended for those in developing nations. It followed his minimal design aesthetic. It checked all of the right places on the solar water disinfection checklist. It won several international design awards, such as the Index Award in 2007. And the product is still only at the level of nonfunctional prototype, as Meda and Paz continue their search for producers who can meet the €1.50 retail goal. In the field of hardcore industrial design that Meda is grafted to, it is surprising to see a mere prototype gain such recognition, especially one that does not function.
Perhaps Meda, a father figure to a younger generation of designers, was given the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps everyone agreed with the implications of distributing the Solar Bottle. Perhaps critics foresaw a reformation of a design giant who is known for his material and process-based products, into one whose products are more user-centric. Perhaps, at the end of the day, those who praised this design did so because they were able to envision a life without access to drinkable water. Back in Florida, life without utilities was like being on vacation. Then the bathtub was dry, and life gained an essential sense of seriousness. Had I been confronted with this reality for my entire life, how would a Solar Bottle change my life? In this context, it is easy to support this project on many levels, as well as easy to support Meda. When you meet him, it is easy to see that his care is genuine. Although he presents himself as a simple man and a simple designer, and, when confronted with complex systems in design ethics, replies, “that’s for your generation to figure out,” his generous gift to the design world is evident in a simple object that fuses mass-production materials and technology with an authentic concern for the user.
Interview Images
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