Arch. Luisa Bocchietto
Arch. Luisa Bocchietto, architect and designer, graduated from the Milan Polytechnic. She works as a freelancer, undertaking projects for local development, building renovations and urban planning. As a visiting professor, she teaches at universities and design schools, takes part in design conferences and international juries, publishes articles and organises exhibitions on architecture and design. Over the years, her numerous projects have aimed at supporting the propagation of design quality. From 2008 until 2014, she was National president of the ADI, the Italian Association for Industrial Design. From 2017 to 2019, she was president of the World Design Organization (formerly Icsid), and currently serves as its senator.
Red Dot in an interview with Arch. Luisa Bocchietto
What characterises Italian design?
Arch. Luisa Bocchietto: Italian design has always been characterised by continuous change, generated by a process of constant self-criticism. I would say that it can be distinguished by its strength of colour, by irony, by trying to achieve “much with little” and by the subversive character that often pervades its expressions.
What expertise is needed in order to judge a product’s design quality?
It’s necessary to know the evolution of a design and its expressions, the technologies used, the functions that are affected by the product, its intended use. The relationship between all these components must be harmoniously resolved and, therefore, an objective degree of beauty must be identifiable. Finally, it is necessary to know how to evaluate – beyond form and function – the intrinsic sustainability of the product, a characteristic that contributes to determining quality today. To do this, it is necessary to know a little more about the process, upstream and downstream, of what lies ahead.