An INTERNI Designer's Week that prepares for recovery. And what is needed to understand, if anything were needed, that the design system is ready for the future.

This Interni Designer's Week had great value, in addition to the many uncertainties, cautions and small frustrations of a design week at a quarter of its power. He brought attention back to the product. Shooting in a showroom almost alone, in large, somewhat silent spaces, forces you to look and see. After a long time we have had time to observe closely, touch, handle. Following the profile of the seam of a Frau sofa with your fingertips is not the same thing as looking at it distractedly while talking to a colleague or a designer in the turmoil of a social event.

It takes attention to grasp the importance and meaning of that seam, how it is made, what it's about. Recently in an interview Monica Mazzei, founder of Edra, underlines the importance of letting the product speak and overcoming the temptation to substitute a narrative for authenticity. You can only agree with it, because the made in Italy speaks clearly and strongly of a quality that is the best exercise of aesthetic and functional duration. He speaks without the need for great interpreters of a deep-rooted, solid attitude that not even a crisis like that of 2020 can shake.

In the world of technology there is a trend ridden by all the big tech brands: the post functional. The word describes a performance centered on infinite human variability, to which the function responds by adapting to the individual characteristics of the user. It is a radicalization of the idea of ​​inclusive design, and it is interesting because it changes the way we use and perceive technological tools. Post-functionality represents a small revolution for interaction design. But it is instead intrinsic to the modus operandi of Italian design, and it is one of those solid and immutable aspects from which made in Italy can think of building a post-pandemic design.

Touring the showrooms, from via Durini to Brera and Porta Nuova, is a succession of brilliant aesthetic transcriptions not only of functions, but of ways of being, lifestyles, desires and aspirations. Translating man into an object is a skill that is expressed in a thousand ways, but which in the enchantment of a well-resolved joint, of a disassemblable (and therefore sustainable) body, of an ironic formal quote, of a perfect seam, meets with wonder and, therefore, with hope.

To realize this, just take a careful look, a little longer than usual, at the Houdini cabinet by Roberto Lazzeroni for Giorgetti. Or GamFratesi's booth Plot for Poltrona Frau. Stop for a few minutes at Porro for the new Storage collection by Piero Lissoni or at Minotti to take a closer look at the Connery seating system designed by Rodolfo Dordoni. Or go to Riflessi to understand how the new Square extendable table works, a project generated by a new patent.