Lorenzo Palmeri

From furnishings for Stone Italiana to a new guitar for msd Alchemix by Arpa Industriale, the most eclectic Italian designer of the moment Lorenzo Palmeri describes his #MDW2017 and the role music plays in his private and professional life.

Lorenzo Palmeri. Photo Gabriele Zanon
Music forms part of the daily design routine of Lorenzo Palmeri, an architect by training, interior/product designer, teacher since 2007 and composer. Music is an absolute project not only for musicians and orchestra conductors but also for those who look at and study the instruments that create it.
Palmeri’s operating range covers a vast area made of object types that seem light years away from each other: from the Mandala digital piano with 88 keys for Korg Italia (2006) to the Promenade lamp which revolves like a pinwheel for Valenti Luce (2005), the Magnum air hand-dryer for Fumagalli designed in the same year and the Erbamatta rug for Nodus (2013), named after the stylised image of a flower.
Delfi di Lorenzo Palmeri per Stone Italiana, 2017. Lavabo self-standing in quarzo ricomposto, con ripostiglio e porta ascugamani integrato
Self-standing basin Delfi by Lorenzo Palmeri for Stone Italiana, 2017
His love story with music is physiological and unstoppable, continuing with the design of another two instruments, the Paraffina Slapster electric guitar for Noah Guitar in 2006 and the Paraffina Bass for the same firm in 2013. Of course, his portfolio presents no shortage of the vases, modular walls, experiments and interiors more habitually found in a designer’s production. He also works in the small scale, see his coloured whistle designs for Pandora and the delicious “Home (is where I want to be)” micro-chocolates tailor-made for Ernst Knam (2013), for whom he also designed a shop in Milan (2015) conceived as a theatre and entirely dedicated to lovers of haute patisserie and the gastronomic aesthetic.

 

In 2009, Palmeri published his first album, Preparativi Per La Pioggia, a selection of pieces created with names such as Franco Battiato and Saturnino – obviously and splendidly in bass. Now, we await his new album, promised shortly, and at Milan Design Week he is presenting a self-standing washbasin in recomposed quartz for Stone Italiana (MDW debut for the company with a stand also by Palmeri), complete with towel rail and small hiding place for personal effects; also, for the same company, the Orange coffee table in segments to be composed at will; a table service called Formiche because ants have left their tortuous geometric trails on the ceramic surface; and Navel, a new electric guitar for MSD, a contemporary take on the instrument’s archetype.

Design and music are his two great obsessions. I would dare to ask which of the two most inspires the other or whether they are just two different frontiers on the same map.

 

Maria Cristina Didero: Let’s start with the past. Please talk about the designs created with Bruno Munari and Isao Hosoe. How did this experience enrich you and what mark has it left on your design life today?

Lorenzo Palmeri: They were two very different experiences but both provided an abundance of stimuli and endless anecdotal material. As with all my experiences, I feel they have become a part of me although I can’t put my finger on anything specific. Perhaps a tendency towards a pragmatic and pro-active approach to what initially seems absolutely mad!

Percussioni Mallet's Family di Lorenzo Palmeri per la mostra “fabric Action. Nuovi impieghi della canapa”
Mallet's Family by Lorenzo Palmeri

Maria Cristina Didero: What is the essence of your design?

Lorenzo Palmeri: A sense of service, even in designs where it is less obvious.

Maria Cristina Didero: What is the difference between designing a praline, a rug and a lamp. In other words, explain your approach to design?

Lorenzo Palmeri: I try to pursue a design approach that goes beyond and, in a certain sense, unifies different contexts, materials, methods available and characteristics with the inclinations of the people who engage you. “Forward thinking” is something that attracts, fascinates and excites me, both in myself and when I see it in others. It is a category that, I believe, travels above all the disciplines. When you enter this mode, there is no difference except in terms of knowhow in a specific field.

Maria Cristina Didero: What does music mean to you and what role does it play in your private life?

Lorenzo Palmeri: Music has free access to inner places rarely accessed by other forms of expression. It’s something that is always with me; sometimes a phrase will emerge and sometimes it remains in the background. Let’s say it is as if I were living with a soundtrack. I listen to it and am open to everything with no preconceptions, although I can rapidly abandon paths I consider of little interest without regret. I am attracted to what gives me the impression I’m learning something new, a zone that, in my case, often coincides with pleasure. The same happens with all disciplines, sometimes it’s music, other times a book, a picture, a cartoon strip, someone’s design or a film. Generally, I only listen to music when on the move, be it on foot, in the car, on a bicycle or on public transport.

Chitarra elettrica Navel di Lorenzo Palmeri per MSD, 2017
Navel, electric guitar by di Lorenzo Palmeri for MSD, 2017

Maria Cristina Didero: Does it play any particular role in your professional life?

Lorenzo Palmeri: In terms of listening, I don’t really differentiate between the private and the professional. I try to be guided by pleasure and joy. When I am in a writing phase, I become obsessed and put things to the test. If they tire me or do not stand up to repeated listening, I rework or abandon them with the same lack of pity I reserve for design or architectural projects. I can’t listen to music when I am working on something, whatever the genre.

Maria Cristina Didero: Tell me about the adventure of your first album?

Lorenzo Palmeri: Well, firstly and as is often the case with projects pursued, it was a hugely rich experience. Working with those people was exciting. As well as friends, they are experience “drivers”. So many things happen in the condensed timeframe of a record’s creation. You make decisions that, in a flash, completely shift the direction and meaning of months of work. Lastly, working and singing with Franco Battiato is an honour and great pleasure.

Maria Cristina Didero: What is unusual about your latest guitar?

Lorenzo Palmeri: Musical instruments are the perfect metaphor for a design project. They are objects that, however beautiful, find their meaning in the encounter with a human being; without it they remain mute. My work on the guitar has to do with archetypes, ancient and very modern. Although a relatively new instrument, the electric guitar has a structured and very complex epic. You know immediately when you design a new instrument from the exaggerated reactions to it, for or against.

Vista dell'allestimento di Lorenzo Palmeri della mostra "The New Normal: Let’s recycle for life", per Eco-oh! alla Triennale di Milano
View of the exhibition set by Lorenzo Palmeri "The New Normal: Let’s recycle for life", for Eco-oh!, Triennale di Milano. Photo Camilla Ferrari

Maria Cristina Didero: I simply must ask you about your encounter with Lou Reed.

Lorenzo Palmeri: I first met him on a strange and magical evening, along with the guys from Noah (Renato Ruatti, Gianni Melis and Mauro Moia), Saturnino, Guido Harari and Davide Tramontano. He hugged me and, referring to the Paraffina, said: “that’s my guitar”. There were also other times, in Italy and New York, but I fear the story would take too long.

Maria Cristina Didero: I know that you teach in Italy and abroad. What message do you give your students and what differences in approach do you see between Italian students and those of other countries.

Lorenzo Palmeri: I believe there is something sacred about teaching. In some ways, I depersonalise. I am not interested in displaying any ego or, at the most, I use it to encourage people to seek their own form.

Vaso T Shirt di Lorenzo Palmeri per Il Coccio
T Shirt vase by Lorenzo Palmeri for Il Coccio

Maria Cristina Didero: Do you have a daily routine?

Lorenzo Palmeri: I try to get up early and do some exercises, inner cleansing let’s say. I don’t have breakfast and I perform the sacred and delightful task of taking my children to school. I go to my studio and try to stay there as long as possible although I often have appointments that take me elsewhere, which is why I have learnt to work anywhere. If I don’t have lunch with people I need to see, I like to make my own lunch. I usually finish around 7pm and then go home and nearly always stay there.

Maria Cristina Didero: A desire for the future or a project you would like to tackle and why?

Lorenzo Palmeri: Since I don’t give myself any boundaries, I’ll say I’d like to design a hotel and try composing an opera.

© all rights reserved

4–9 April 2017
Lorenzo Palmeri


Orange, Delfi, On-stage – Stone Italiana
Fiera Rho-Pero, Pad. 6, Stand F66
Adsint – Stone Italiana

Via Visconti di Modrone 27
Eco-Oh! The new normal!

Triennale di Milano
Chitarra Navel per msd Alchemix by Arpa Industriale

Pinacoteca di Brera, via Brera 28
Performance 7 aprile, h 19-20
Formiche

J&V Store, via Melzo 7
T Shirt vase – Il Coccio

la Rinascente, piazza Duomo
Mallet Family – Fabric Action

Vinyl Collection – Radio 101
Statale, via Festa del Perdono 7
Bulè – My Home Collection

Fiera Rho-Pero, Pad. 18, stand E15

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