Design dialogues

With an intensive four-day workshop involving six young designers and a group of students, Barbara Brondi and Marco Rainò use design to trigger a debate on current issues.

Now in its sixth year, the “IN Residence” project is out of the ordinary for more reasons than one.

Yes, it has an unusual setting, the Du Parc apartments, a Rational-Brutalist  icon in Turin by Laura Petrazzini and Corrado Levi, and a special formula that, for three whole days, asks six young designers to work (but also live and reflect) alongside 24 students from four different schools in Turin.

But, what makes this exploration all the more unusual is its aim – to accustom students to take a more critical approach to design and, via the lever of dialogue, help them grasp the potential different meanings of the objects they produce. Barbara Brondi and Marco Rainò tell Domus how the initiative –  conceived by them in 2008 – originated and has grown, and what to expect from this latest event involving Anton Alvarez, Jean-Baptiste Fastrez, Hilda Hellström, Kolk & Kusters, Jon Stam, Giorgia Zanellato. 

IN Residence Workshop: Identity Detectors
IN Residence Workshop 6: Identity Detectors

Domus: Can you explain the formula behind this residency

Barbara Brondi, Marco Rainò: The project originated several years ago, in 2008, when Turin was the “World Design Capital”. The idea emerged within that context and with the aim of promoting a special (and beautiful) place – the Du Parc hotel, a tall building constructed in 1971 by Laura Petrazzini and Corrado Levi that now has 80 suites. As well as featuring Rational-Brutalist architecture, the building houses a number of artworks from the Levi collection with every suite featuring some period but mostly modern and contemporary works.

Design pieces have been added to the collection in recent years following joint projects with designers. We take up one floor of the building, connecting 3-4 suites that serve both as accommodation for the designers and for the activities of the workshop, open to 24 students every year selected from four Turin schools (two public and two private) that offer design courses: Turin Polytechnic, Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, IED and IAAD. The students embark on a dialogue that is close to hearts because it is both resource and theme. Design is used to embark on a dialogue, as an effective means of communication and as a means to mutual understanding on different topics. We choose a specific theme on which to focus every year.

IN Residence Workshop: Identity Detectors
IN Residence Workshop 6: Identity Detectors. Above: designers Jon Stam and Hilda Hellström

Domus: Who chooses the designers – and how?

Barbara Brondi, Marco Rainò: We choose them after deciding on the theme. Age is the only fixed restriction. We always seek out very young designers because we like to conduct our investigations in the underworld and because it totally changes the relationship with the students. It is four days of intense living with known and already published names who have a story to tell but are just a few years older than them.

This recognition is further amplified by the knowledge that they have just a few but long and intense days to spend together, from morning to late evening. We live together and this makes for a highly effective formula.

IN Residence Workshop: Identity Detectors
IN Residence Workshop 6: Identity Detectors. The workshop by Kolk & Kusters and Giorgia Zanellato

Domus: What can be produced in four days?

Barbara Brondi, Marco Rainò: We cannot make prototypes with this timescale; that is not what the residency is about. It is to accustom the students to take a more critical approach to design and, via the lever of dialogue, understand the potential meanings of the objects they are making. That is the main factor in the whole exploration and it produces extremely positive results. There is a manual skill in the single “exercises” improvised by the designers with the simplest of materials.

This is no well-equipped workshop, we use paper, cables and string, what you might find in any home. This shifts the focus all the more to the object and away from the tools.

IN Residence Workshop: Identity Detectors
IN Residence Workshop 6: Identity Detectors

Domus: Design culture and design debate. Can you explain these key words? Does the debate leave the suites and draw in a local audience at a certain point?

Barbara Brondi, Marco Rainò: The first part of the workshop in very inward looking, on the three days set aside for just the staff, students and designers. The public presentation comes afterwards and has, for the last four years, been held at the Circolo del Lettori in Turin where we explain what we have done to a lay audience.

The designers introduce themselves and talk about their work, then it ends with a public debate. Interest has increased over the years and, although originally privately funded, this project has in recent years been backed by institutions such as the Compagnia di San Paolo and the Chamber of Commerce. A whole programme also revolves around the annual workshop and, in alternating years, we hold a collective exhibition (during the Furniture Fair) featuring all the designers who have participated in our theme discussions. Next year is the third collective exhibition, while the second one is now doing the rounds.

The debate is hugely important and we apply the term design in the British sense of design project. We see design as a process. Another spin-off is a series of public talks organised during the year.

IN Residence Workshop: Identity Detectors
IN Residence Workshop 6: Identity Detectors. Anton Alvarez

Domus: Is there always a cross-cutting approach in relation, for instance, to art and product design in the stricter sense?

Barbara Brondi, Marco Rainò: We are also interested in those who adopt a stricter interpretation of the profession. In fact, because of my own and Barbara’s personal interest, our attention has focused on the generation of designers who are also makers. We are drawn to these people who work in several registers and more across the board. We include these skills in the debate and discussion on how much and why design is needed today and what it should produce. I cannot hide the fact that there is a reference to design in limited editions and indeed single pieces which is more strongly related to the visual arts than others.

IN Residence Workshop: Identity Detectors
IN Residence Workshop 6: Identity Detectors

Domus: Might this also be dictated to some degree by the place where the workshop originated and is held?

Barbara Brondi, Marco Rainò: The high-point achieved in the residency helps to make the venue crucial as too the Turin context, where we were born, grew up and happen to work.

Ours is an architectural practice but our experimentations are very free. We conceived and curate the “IN Residence” project and are also involved in the series of books published by Corraini. We create the book’s  graphic design and have also frequently acted as artistic directors in the music and fashion spheres. We place these experiences in a single folder given over to design analysis. Our approach is very free and has developed over time.

IN Residence Workshop: Identity Detectors
IN Residence Workshop 6: Identity Detectors

Domus: How is the workshop structured this year?

Barbara Brondi, Marco Rainò: For some years now, our formula has asked the designers to work in pairs, formed after an initial dialogue and debate. The designers decide jointly on a title. On the last day, they present their comments to the other groups, explaining their direction, process and ideas.

IN Residence Workshop: Identity Detectors
IN Residence Workshop: Identity Detectors. The workshop by Hilda Hellström and Anton Alvarez
IN Residence Workshop: Identity Detectors
IN Residence Workshop: Identity Detectors

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