“We believe that design has a fundamental role in society: asking important questions about the present, designing solutions and building a better future through the ability to imagine scenarios which are different from those already dictated by conventional wisdom. This is an important responsibility which happily, design shows no sign of shirking,” concluded the jury’s report for the XXVIII edition – the seventieth – of the Compasso d’Oro ADI 2024. The jury was composed of Maria Cristina Didero, Luciano Galimberti, Francisco Gómez Paz, Renata Cristina Mazzantini, and Toshiyuki Kita.
This year again, in addition to the 20 award-winning products and 39 mentions, Compasso d'Oro Awards for Lifetime Achievement have been given to important personalities in the field of design, as well as 3 awards for “long sellers”, products that have been on the market for several decades. In this section, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Compasso, the figure of Gio Ponti, creator of the award and founder of Domus, was celebrated by awarding the 1953 D.154.2 armchair (now Molteni&C), the 1957 Superleggera chair for Cassina and the tiles now known as the Collezione Blu Ponti, which we know from his Hotel Parco dei Principi in Sorrento. The Lifetime Achievement Awards were enriched by the International Award, where, alongside Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo, another name associated with Domus was honoured: Tadao Ando, our 2021 guest editor.
For the Targa Giovani, reserved for projects by students from Italian design universities, 3 prizes and 9 certificates were awarded. ADI and the ADI Foundation also chose to commemorate some recently deceased figures who made significant contributions to the culture of design with a special plaque: Manlio Armellini, who passed away in 2020 and was one of the creators of the Salone del Mobile; and designers Gaetano Pesce and Italo Rota, both of whom died in April this year.
As emphasized by the jury, the common feature among the 311 submitted projects was the desire to seek innovations, applying advanced technologies capable of breaking even well-established typologies. Two other fundamental elements identified were sustainability and attention to workplace safety, which is achieving concrete awareness and maturity towards the many problems that still generate a sad record of fatal accidents. Once again, design presents itself as a transversal discipline, capable of converging knowledge and disciplines that are often very distant, without neglecting an important emotional component. The exhibition, consisting of all the awarded projects, along with other participants in the selection, can be visited until September 16, 2024.
All pictures: Courtesy Compasso d’Oro ADI