Diversity, imbalance, uncertainty are the new paradigms of design: the December issue tells how design culture today has to confront new and uncomfortable issues that have nothing to do with the ideals of progress assumed in the past

In this issue, we talk about an idea of beauty that gets away from traditional canons. An idea that embraces the principle of the unfinished, of imperfection and obsolescence, therefore contradicting the classic logic of the industrial aesthetic, programmed to be reproducible, always perfect, always the same. Gaetano Pesce addressed these issues, when at the end of the 1950s he used the terms ‘malfatto’ (badly made) and ‘diversified series’ to indicate a method that became a distinctive feature of his design practice.

Graphic Motion: Daniele Basilico

New paradigms

Today his theoretical legacy is a reference point for designers striving to make the discarded and the imperfect into materials for invention. Design culture, in fact, has to come to grips with new, unwieldy issues that have nothing to do with the ideals of progress sought in the past: diversity, imbalance and uncertainty are the new paradigms of a discipline in an ongoing state of becoming. It is no coincidence that the title of the upcoming 24th International Exhibition of Triennale Milano, from May to November 2025, is “Inequalities.”

Embracing diversity and limits

We discussed this program with Nic Palmarini, director of the City of Longevity project, and Telmo Pievani, an evolutionist philosopher. Both are involved in the exhibition, and explain their viewpoints on the necessity of welcoming diversities and limits, for a better approach to the shaping of the society of the future. We are living through an epochal passage, and design can help us to cope with it: for example, by taking repair and longevity of objects as a strategy for sustainability. The furnishings in our coverage have been created for easy repair and to improve with the passage of time, which becomes the added value of the project.