SEARCH IN IDEAMAGAZINE.NET

 

 FIRST INTERNATIONAL ECO-DESIGN COMPETITION CASA TOSCANA


During the "Salone del mobile" in Milan, between the many events in these days of febrile activity, there's been the 1st Eco-design Competition"Casa Toscana", promoted by Consorzio Casa Toscana in collaboration with Centro Studi Giovanni Klaus Koenig, section of the Dipartimento di Processi e Metodi of the Faculty of Architecture - University of Florence.

Beginning from the consideration that no other region as Tuscany introduces a tradition of balance between natural and artificial - Let's think about the armonic development of country side and city, the accuracy of the rural economy, to the wise use of materials in handicraft work-shops.
The idea of this competition for the planning of furnishings elements, that introduces characteristics of environmental sustainability, is due to the will of giving value to the tradition of Tuscan furnishing and to renew it. Designers have been asked to pay special attention to the research of an ecological sensibility, extended to all the phases of the life of the product, beginning with the use of renewable, recycled and "clean" materials, the production obtained reducing refuse at the least and adopting working systems with a very small impact on the environment, the care for the consumers health, the long lasting of the product life,to end with characteristics of ricycle, disassembly, mono-materialsty of the product.

Of particular interest the collaboration of some Tuscan companies, between which Giemmegi, Coef, Giovannetti, Donati & Gasperini, Famam, that, keeping anonymous til the time of the prize giving, supplied the design brief on which the candidates were invited to compete and allowed, in this way, to guarantee a tighter relationship between the world of design and the one of producers. On the contrary of what often happens in this kind of competitions.
The involvement of companies that expressed real needs related to their specific activity allowed the designers who decided to participate to answer the most various requirements, from classic to the piece of furniture thought for young costumers.

The giury, composed by experts as Roberto Segoni and Lino Centi respectively president and director of the Centro Studi Klaus Koenig, Massimo Ruffilli, director of the School of Specialization in Industrial Design of the Faculty of Architecture of Florence, Maria Berrini director of Institute environment Italia, designer like Isao Hosoe and Denis Santachiara and entrepreneurs like Gianni Overi and Franco Dominici, met on April 2nd 2001 in order to name the winners between more than 150 plans arrived from all over the world. Certainly not an easy task considering the high quality of the plans, so that the giury decided to assign 2 second prizes and 3 third ones ex-equo. The prize - giving was performed in the space prepared by Consorzio Casa Toscana at the "Salone del Mobile" di Milano, where the most meaningful plans have been exposed, all very different and all very interesting.

Therefore if the 1° prize was given to Bino kitchen designed by Ornella Sessa and Leonardo Dolfi, with its extremely modern and technical lines to realize in ecorex, aluminum and serigraf glass, the 3rd prize was given to the Dedalo bureau, by Gaetano Martella, an attempt of revaluation of the classic piece of furniture, with particular attention to the recovery of handicraft techniques. Draft in fact of a design thought entirely in laminate wood with junctions and wax finishings.

Two seats have been awarded of the 2nd prize: a modular pouf, Ecco, by the English Lee Ackland, whose name has been chosen not only for similarity with the word ecology but also because the letters seem to join and hug each other like the elements of the plan and the cosy anthropomorphic swing chair, Sogno di ritornare bambino (dreaming of being a child again, ndt) by Moira Stefani, realized entirely in hemp, answering therefore to the demand for monomaterialty, ricycle but also long lasting product life. The pouf Here, in hemp, papier machè and waterlily is proposed, through the realization of objects of small dimensions, highly expressive and little expensive, therefore easy accessible, like a simple way to approach the consumer to objects for the house realized with technologies particularly caring of the environment and unusual materials. After the Dedalo bureau the third prize went to the design of the group formed by Antonio Marano, Antonio Basti, Giuseppe Bucchianico, Donato D'Ercole, Riccardo D'Oria, the complex system kitchen-exhibitor Alluminium zuppa, in satin glass, recomposed laminate wood, lavic stone, aluminum and steel, and to the system Virus made of panels of wood fibers from controlled forests designed by Eva Paris and Matteo Zetti.
Text by:
Gloria Refini

I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.


in cooperation with:
Elena Granchi
Sonia Morini

TOP