Glass and sustainability in architecture and design, the themes of the talk between Cino Zucchi, architect, and Gabriele Centazzo, founder of the company Valcucine.
Current and future scenarios, applications and developments of glass, a 100% sustainable material, in the fields of architecture, design and the home. This was the theme of the talk "Vetrospettiva. Glass is more", a lively dialogue between architect Cino Zucchi and Gabriele Centazzo, founder of the company Valcucine, which took place on Thursday 11 October at the Valcucine showroom in Milan as part of the Brera Design Days events.
From Friuli, a designer, entrepreneur, experimenter and inventor, but above all a great visionary, Gabriele Centazzo, founder of the company Valcucine, is considered a guru of sustainable design. From Milan, Cino Zucchi is among the most well-known and innovative Italian designers in the fields of architecture and urban design. Full Professor at the Politecnico di Milano and Visiting Professor in Housing and Urbanization at the GSD at Harvard, he is the author of architectures that are often highly dynamic, both in the use of materials and colours on external façades and in the internal spatial organisation.
Centazzo and Zucchi share a common perspective on the role of design: for both of them, design and architecture must engage all the senses, not only sight, which for many years has been considered the primary source of knowledge. Human beings and their wellbeing must always be at the centre of any project, and the task of designers must be aimed at creating products and spaces that contribute to the pleasure of everyday living.
The focus of the meeting was glass, a material of the present and probably of the future, 100% sustainable and recyclable, widely used in contemporary architecture and among the materials most beloved by designers for its countless qualities: transparency, beauty, lightness, sustainability. Today, technological advances have also made it "intelligent" — capable, that is, of responding dynamically to environmental changes, from colour to heat, to controlling the dispersal of energy consumption. Read the in-depth article on the subject.
Gabriele Centazzo, speaking before a predominantly young and highly attentive audience of future designers and architects, recounted the significant historical and innovative transition in which he played a leading role: the invention of an all-glass kitchen — Artematica Vitrum — a true milestone that marked a significant point of innovation in the world of design, rightfully taking its place in the history of Italian design. When he founded Valcucine in the early 1980s, one of his main objectives was to make the kitchen 100% recyclable. The stages of technological research that made it possible to create, between 1987 and 1992, a product that was so innovative at the time — and still relevant 30 years on — were complex and highly experimental.
On the subject of colour, he recounted: "Once we had established the structural parameters of the kitchen, we felt the need to imbue the glass with unique chromatic depth and intensity. We brought chemistry and mechanics into dialogue with each other to develop the first non-toughened paint capable of keeping the applied colour tone unaltered and ensuring excellent adhesion to glass." Thus, after test after test, the first non-toughened paint was developed that could grip onto glass without having to undergo toughening — a process that produced uneven colour on the glass and caused blemishes. From a stylistic and expressive standpoint, the most stimulating challenge of those years was that of representing glass, until then perceived as a solid and heavy material, as aesthetically light, airy, suspended, immaterial. "And succeeding in conveying the wonderful sensation of flight!", as Centazzo recalled. To achieve this aim, the concept of the cabinet and wall-unit door was revolutionised by dematerialising the structure and reducing it to its essentials, with the glass supported by a minimal aluminium frame not visible from the outside, and exploiting the greater height of the glass relative to the frame to create an invisible, ergonomic opening along the upper side.
Cino Zucchi gave a brief overview of how profoundly architecture — which gives form and image to the cities of our contemporary world — has changed over the past twenty years: alongside the heaviness of stone, an unchanging metaphor for eternity, and the imposing presence of reinforced concrete, a symbol of industrial progress, glass has asserted itself in architecture, entering the scene first as a complement to the structural virtuosity of steel and subsequently as a sophisticated structural element in its own right, with an almost virtual image, visually rarefied and light, that has become one of the symbols of our time. "I have a great interest in music, and for me architecture is like a pop song — said Zucchi — something that is structured, but has a deeper meaning.
The miracle of music is its abstract and sentimental quality: architecture is like a pop song heard in the background of our lives. Architecture must not surpass life; it should remain in the background, it should be pleasant — naturally it can be important, powerful, monumental, but not in a direct sense. I like the background music of architecture."
It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to predict how the use of glass will evolve in the architecture and design of the near future, since "uncertainty is the only certainty of the new millennium", as the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, quoted several times during the Valcucine talk, put it. But one thing is certain: the theme of sustainability will be the indispensable binding thread of design, the central issue on which young architects and designers will engage in order to find effective and innovative solutions to improve quality of life. The event concluded with a strong and resolute message addressed by Centazzo above all to the young people who will shape the future: "To find happiness you need vision and creativity, in every field of life. And alongside study, go back to observing, to always being curious, because the natural world is the greatest designer that has ever existed."
Economist Alan Friedman is also aware of the importance of material sustainability, particularly in the furniture sector, as he explains in this video: