The Purpose of Design Bridging

The purpose of Design Bridging is to represent and support the system excellence of innovation, research and skills as a vehicle for a new idea of the Italian company. There can be no styling, automotive, fashion, architecture, interior design without a solid and lively fabric of initiatives and innovations in materials, industrial research and cultural education.

Design, with its capacity to connect, to highlight and enhance intersections, plays a fundamental role that goes far beyond a mere matter of form and aesthetics.

Innovation is a trans-disciplinary collaborative process, in sectors, roles, skills. Design is shared terrain for partnerships and distributive and industrial relationships.

Design between South Korea and Italy

In the last 35 years, South Korea has moved towards development with speed and depth. It has managed to exploit the cultural vehicle (cinema, music, TV series in particular) to enhance its economic growth. It is a nation that is always connected but at the same time based on the values of the oldest tradition.

Italy in South Korea is not only brands and products but a desire for knowledge of know-how and tradition, it is an expectation of innovation in style and technology. You are recognized as an important protagonist of the culture of design and of the trans-disciplinary capacity of productions.

A renewed thinking about the human and natural environment generates a growing attention from producers and consumers for innovative, systemic and sustainable Italian design, with a special focus on technologies and circularity.

Italy-South Korea in the words of Ambassador Failla

The Italian Ambassador in Seoul Federico Failla spoke about it during this year's Design Week: "The numerous initiatives developed in Korea on Italian design during 2022 , have promoted strong and innovative themes: from the iconic style project to the design of materials, up to the connection between art and design.

Our goal is to involve Italian and Korean companies in a collaboration aimed at promoting a sustainable lifestyle with low environmental impact, exploring the new frontiers of sustainability.

Between Italy and Korea it is possible to work on platforms that allow dialogue between the different ecosystems, so that they combine training, research and production. We need to go beyond the concept of distributing and selling products in foreign countries; it is necessary to build common cultural and innovation paths."

Italian presence at Design Bridging

Several Italian companies were present in various forms during the Design Bridging days, introduced by a direct testimony of the president of the Salone del Mobile. Milan Maria Porro and also supported by Ferderlegno and its president Claudio Feltrin.

Many Italian excellences were invited, selected from those that represent the value of Design as an integrated and transversal activity. At Design Bridging they had the opportunity to meet a selected audience of representatives of Korean companies, building developers, producers of technological solutions for living, production centers for packaging materials.

Among them, the sustainable innovation cases represented by Loccioni Group (measurement, energy, automotive technologies), by Lamberti Group (specialties chemicals for fabrics, paper, wood, leather, inks, oil&gas), from Guzzini (objects for the home, the kitchen, free time - with the particular Circle project on second-life plastics) , by Foppa Pedretti (wood products from a sustainable supply chain) and by Florim (low environmental impact ceramics).

During the first day, there was also talk of GreenBeing, and their 'Green Station', a revolutionary air purification system, based on space technologies and the extraordinary ability of plants to purify the air.

The last day, organized in collaboration with and at the prestigious Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), chaired by the former UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, focused on the good practices of companies in terms of circular economy and de-carbonization, highlighting the experience carried forward by Italian and Korean companies and by the GGGI.

The 2022 edition

The meetings of November 29 and 30 were held at High Street Italia in Seoul, a structure managed by the ICE Agency and intended for the promotion of Made in Italy.

Moderator of the days was the innovation designer Giorgio Di Tullio, coordinator of research and development groups for innovation in sustainable materials, energy and technologies and winner of international awards , such as the Wallpaper Design Award and Compasso d'Oro Honorable Mentions.

Co-curator of the project is Renza Fornaroli, former head of the Farnesina Design project.