An Italian interior

This article was originally published in Domus 964 / December 2012

The significance of Internoitaliano ("Italian Interior") can be summed up in a single drawing created around a year ago. In the meantime, that sketch has taken on the proportions of a keynote manifesto for the design project started then and which still occupies us every day in the studio. At that time, I had designed a series of furniture and accessories, all arranged in a single line, like actors taking a bow at the end of play. This collection of objects represented my vision of a system of furniture inspired by the Italian culture of living.

I wanted to use this ideal exercise to point to the absence, among the heterogeneous array of products on the market, of a unitary expression of the domestic Italian scene, one that was neither flattened by a generic international style nor influenced by the intrusive excesses that make contemporary design incomprehensible to the majority of people. This theoretical exercise set out to distil a hypothetical "Italian mode" for the design of interiors.

My aim, therefore, was to ensure that the functions of the objects in Internoitaliano were immediately apparent and intelligible. They had to refer back to an archetype, tend towards the use of a single material and create the idea of general simplicity. Allusions to classicism and a certain vein of humour — which has always been a part of Italian furniture design — were other elements inspiring the project.

Lastly, the materials had to be consistent with and respect the manufacturing tradition of Italian furniture craftsmanship, and be chosen with local character and availability in mind. Internoitaliano is not merely the name of a project — though a complex and structured one — formulated in our studio. As well as generating ideas, we have sought fair and close-knit relationships with a production network comprised of artisan workshops.

We assigned our designs to this genuinely networked factory so they might grow and mature in the light of the constructive skill that can only be expressed by those artisan ateliers. It was clear from the start that the artisans' contribution could not simply be restricted to the practical execution of our designs. Without their expertise and unique ability to transform material, all our efforts would have remained on paper. To highlight their primary role, we decided that the name of each artisan would be clearly visible as a co-creator on the piece in the collection he had made.

Internoitaliano is therefore a system for the design and production of furniture and accessories with a strong craftsmanship component, which draws on the Internet to open a virtual window on the global market. The result is a (first) series of furniture designs that I like to call "happy" because they result from the joint work of a designer who thought them out and an artisan who created them with passion. Since we do not foresee them being distributed through traditional sales outlets, they are free of the economic constraints that impose cost multipliers. This will allow every single object to appear on the market at a fair price, reflecting the real value of the work of the person who designed it and the person who created it.

Lastly, Internoitaliano is a place where hugely valuable professional skills — from Max Rommel's photographs for the catalogue and website to Leonardo Sonnoli's fine work on the visual identity — can come together and help make this small furniture production business special. Over time, in my view Internoitaliano should become a training ground for design that will benefit from the work of talented designers, with the result that the "virtuous mutual influence of craftsmanship and the global economy", as prophesied by Stefano Micelli (author of Futuro Artigiano), can expand to include the unique contribution of Italian design. Giulio Iacchetti, designer