Architect, designer, president of the World design organization, Luisa Bocchietto has a broad vision of design as a tool capable of improving the world.
Architect, designer, president of the World design organization (Wdo), Luisa Bocchietto has a very broad vision of the role of design as a tool capable of improving the world. Her main institutional objective is to spread the concept of sustainability, which she considers indispensable today for any design activity. Consuming better, reducing waste, protecting the planet and the resources we have must become the primary objectives of all designers.
What is the World design organization?
The World design organization is the global organisation that brings together all associations involved in design worldwide, both at a professional and a promotional level. The association is sixty years old and was originally called Icsid, International council of society of industrial design, which then became, precisely, World design organization. The word "industrial" has thus disappeared, to the quiet disappointment of many industrial designers who are attached to this term — though it is a word that takes us back to the last century, to the industrial revolution and therefore to the product. Today design no longer deals exclusively with products, and so designers no longer deal exclusively with the relationship with entrepreneurs to create furniture, lamps or cars.
Design today deals with services and processes, and so the field expands, as do the opportunities for young people in terms of employment.
So there was actually a rebranding — the association was renamed because the word "industrial" evoked the industrial revolution and pollution. Does this mean that the demand coming from the market for sustainable products is so strong today that it led you to redesign your own name?
Exactly, because today we are in the midst of another revolution — the digital one — which encompasses the design of, for example, apps, and which therefore also relates to the city. Design thus becomes a tool for the community as well, to change and improve life in cities too. Not design alone, but design together with other actors, obviously, such as planners and architects. In this context, what is interesting is that alongside the change of name there was also a change of vision; the original objective was that of industrial design, namely to create objects in which form and function were in perfect harmony. We have learned to do that by now. In this new moment, however, the objectives are precisely those of sustainability, which coincide with the United Nations' 17 goals, which call for the protection of the planet, the reduction of waste, the pursuit of equal conditions for people and the fight against climate change. The communicative subtitle, the pay-off of this new brand, is precisely "Design for a better world" — so we are fully in the spirit we have just been discussing.
Can we therefore say that the main objective of architects and designers is to redesign our world in a sustainable way?
Exactly. To contribute to making better products and better cities. And since we know that the rules for product sustainability can be set at the design stage, it is all the more important to make clear how fundamental the contribution of design is in this regard — design that works in relation to those who produce.
Design is a fundamental tool today for changing people's habits and also for addressing the issues of climate change. From your perspective as president of the Wdo and former president of Adi (Associazione design industriale), how is this topic perceived?
We are in a period of change: during my presidency at Adi I had introduced new categories, including design for services and design for social purposes, which move closer to this broader vision of design. In previous years, when companies approached sustainability issues, people spoke of "greenwashing", and so it was understood more as a topic of conversation and communication than as a real one. But in the last two or three years the situation has changed, and there is growing awareness on the part of producers and designers alike to incorporate these sustainability themes as founding criteria of the project.
There is a great deal of talk about sustainability at this Design Week: in your view, does this correspond to genuine, conscious growth on the part of the general public, and how much of it is trend, marketing, the topic of the moment?
There is certainly a degree of trend-following and communication, but I believe that deep down people are aware of how necessary a change is. The language has changed too: people talk less of "consumer" and more of "user." This is because the person on the other side is no longer passive in relation to the design and the product, but very often intervenes to retroactively influence the design process as well. The term "prosumer" is used. No longer defining individuals as consumers, but as users, citizens or people, helps us understand how the relationship is shifting back towards the human being, their needs and quality.
So the person is at the centre of the design process. What is your "call to action" to encourage a step forward towards the future?
The message, above all for designers, is not to think about designing only and always chairs, lamps, furniture and cars, but to design everything that will allow us to consume better, to reduce waste and to protect the planet and the resources we have. I believe this requires an effort of intelligence, and perhaps a little less personalisation; there is a lack of humility in this type of design, because there is no doubt that one needs to set aside one's ego to some extent and share the project with other people.