Design in Flux, towards a universal thought

"A tribute to forms of design intelligence based on intellectual cross-pollination", confirms Beatrice Leanza, "which explore a world of cognition, sensation and interconnection that moves from the molecular to the ultra-planetary scale."

"Exploring a concept like that of Design in flux is an opportunity to investigate the theoretical and practical aspects of design" told us the curator, former executive director of MAAT - the Lisbon Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology and creative director of Beijing Design Week, a profound connoisseur of oriental culture.

"A definition that does not want to be precise but descriptive of a state of design thought that explodes the idea of ​​ collaboration - typical of design - with the awareness that today transectoriality and transdisciplinarity they are able to give a much broader meaning to collaboration, moving between different forms of methodologies and knowledge, from science to sociology to anthropology."

The collaborativeness, in the design field, is now able to work at the most different scales: from the extremely minute - the materials of the polluting microparticles, the spores, the mycelium, among others - up to the idea of ​​developing self-sufficient colonies for life in space, extraterrestrials.

They are practices of reformulation of design thinking that have the same nature.

"We must not think only of 'beyond the human' or of multi-species ethnography, already part of the theory linked to today's design, but also of a long-term vision, if we want to work towards the future of generations that we probably won't meet", concludes Leanza, "I didn't want to talk about innovation in the productive sense of the term but about a change of thinking that must be collective.

Among the themes of design should not be forgotten the iniquity and injustice which are part of our heavily man-made world where disparities are becoming increasingly evident and consistent."

Transectoriality and transdisciplinarity are themes strongly linked to Altagamma Foundation which welcomes 113 brands from the fashion, design, jewelry and food sectors, hospitality, automotive and boating.

"They are cultural companies, with a strong and recognizable Heritage, but also creative and with a vocation to innovate", says Stefania Lazzaroni, general manager of the Foundation.

The push for change has become faster and faster, supported by digital and energetic transitions; stimulated by the member companies, four years ago the Foundation decided to start an annual event in which we did not look at the markets but at the development scenarios of thought, at the new perspectives of design.

Fundamental is the choice of the curators who have proposed a reading each year intercepting themes and lines of development, involving personalities from culture and science.

From Paola Antonelli, senior curator of the architecture and design section of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, to Deyan Sudjic, former director of the London Design Museum, up to Beatrice Leanza , director of MUDAC, Museum of Design and Applied Arts in Lausanne from next January 2023.