One of the projects most likely to be spoken of in the future - for its formula, the way it was put to practice and the types of collaboration that it activated - is a venture by Daniele Lago and his associates: “L’appartamento”. Located on the first floor at 21, Via Tortona, the apartment was inaugurated for the Furniture Fair as a temporary store (a popular recipe for brands nowadays) and temporary home for 13. During the Fair, it was a place to work, live and sleep; a hub where different work experiences merged. There was Lago’s crew, their guests from blog Core77, designers curious to see Lago’s products (used to furnish the apartment), and students from the Royal College of Art in London who had participated in workshops at the Lago headquarters (and some of whom were showing projects in Via Tortona). The need to come to a work solution in alignment with the economic crisis and continuous change imposed by the World Wide Web society have led Daniele and Nicola Lago and their art director, Diego Paccagnella, to invent a new kind of showroom/workplace that would be a melting pot of resources. But these resources are not always connected to the concrete need to work well. “It’s important to have fun and do things that you enjoy,” says Daniele with a smile, “We want to see if the future will bring us only the types of stores that we know today, or if new opportunities can exist. L’appartamento is a tentative in this direction, and we are increasingly excited about it.”
Once they cancelled their hotel rooms, the 13 staff moved into this 300 square-metre apartment, sharing bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms and wardrobes. In the morning, some went to the fair, others stayed home to show the house to visitors, who were also invited to have dinner there in the evening. The project aims at favouring conviviality - a Roman cook was found on Internet to provide culinary support – yet the result is far from being superficial.
Analogous to another ZonaTortona venue, the Design Library, L’appartamento is meant to become a meeting point where discussions can be held. Initially, the period of duration is three months, but it is Lago’s intention to extend this format and export it to other events. The experiment will be the basis for a book/manifesto of contemporary design, edited in collaboration with Venice International University. Innovation really does come about in all different ways. MCT