Autoprogettazione? (SELF-DESIGN?) / FABRICATION



CONCEPT

In 1972, Italian designer Enzo Mari published a small text called “Autoprogettazione?”, it was filled with DIY furniture projects that could be realized by anyone through wooden boards and a few simple tools, basically a hammer and some nails.

It is not easy to translate into English the Italian word autoprogettazione. Literally it means auto = self and progettazione = design.

Mari frames his project as a question, or as I like to think of it, a quest, something that is constantly being created through actions and choices.

Following my exploration In Other Words, I had been thinking a lot about what it takes to make a design project successful and even possible in the first place.

Design depends on many things: time, money, technology, materials, constraints, and most importantly, the lives, attention, and experiences of other people. As designer’s we participate in and often orchestrate a process that’s bigger than we are. If we look closely, we can see that people are at the heart of everything we make.

Mari helped me understand design systems at a deeper level. By going through the process of building these DIY furniture projects, doing actions and making choices I gain a personal insight into the system of the object itself.

For Mari, design is only design if it communicates knowledge.

In the end, I’m left with an object, although usable, the object is only important because of its educational value.
SERVICES

Creative Direction
Type Design Fabrication
Painting
YEAR

2023

We gain ideas by researching and make them truly our own by reproducing them.





What are these words to do with us?


Words shape our ideas, how we see the world, and how we relate to one another. As design teacher and researcher Anne Galloway says:

“Language doesn’t just make things—it assembles, cobbles together, entire worlds and all the relations within.”






There is a realm through which language throws open.


Language makes it possible for us to navigate places and relationships; to express needs and requirements; to name and categorize things; and to understand our place in the universe.

“Language is the material of intent… Language is how we tell other people what we want, what we expect of them, and what we hope to accomplish together. Without language, we can’t collaborate.”

Without words, we wouldn’t be able to plan or effect change.

As a technology, writing has many merits. It complements verbal and visual communication. It’s sturdy and can stay put. It’s cheap. It’s easy to change or reproduce. And it moves faster than ships or airplanes. Writing makes it possible to propel knowledge and intent forward through time.


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