by Maria Cristina Didero, published in LOFT The Nordic BOOKAZINE Summer 2008 Issue, Volume #6
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There’s no doubt that the studio of a designer tells very much about his own work. When stepping into Michele De Lucchi’s world in Milan, one’s senses are immediately pervaded by the fresh smell of wood, as if walking into an artisan’s workshop. It is quite a peculiar feeling considering that we are in the centre of town. Actually even his own image somewhat represents a certain timelessness because, far more than the wood, Michele De Lucchi’s long black beard sprinkled liberally with grey is the very first thing you would notice when meeting him personally for the first time, just as photographs never tell the whole truth about his intensity.

Michele De Lucchi – one of the most important architects and designers of Italian and international contemporary tradition – is the perfect representative of the humanist, creative man: products, buildings, sculptures, brand identities, ideas all melt into each other in his work, which is so complex and deep and yet, surprisingly, is easily accessible to and understood by the public.

Born in Ferrara in 1951, De Lucchi was a part of the avant-garde movements Alchymia and Memphis during the years of the most radical experimentations in design, together with Ettore Sottsass, to name one of the most acclaimed members of these groups. De Lucchi was responsible for the Olivetti Design department from 1992 until 2002. In 1999 he was invited to renovate the network of ENEL’s (the Italian National Electricity Company) electric power plants and stations spread all around Italy. De Lucchi has also worked for different banks and national companies to restyle their public image, among them the Poste Italiane (Italian National Postal Company) which has offices in the smallest of towns across Italy. With the latter, the intention was to make a place where people usually stand around for hours alive and agreeable, giving the dusty atmosphere a modern kick into today’s world.

Michele de Lucchi has also been honored with several notable awards. In 2000, he was appointed Officer of the Italian Republic by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi for his service to design and architecture. In 2001, he was appointed Professor at the Faculty of Design and Art in the University of Venice. And in 2006, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Kingston University in London for his contribution to “the quality of living”. Indeed, De Lucchi is simultaneously the conceiver of design products that have enjoyed gigantic success for varied groups, like the design industry, the industry of mass production and big figures, and the founder of Produzione Privata, his small company dedicated to limited editions, craft-objects which proudly bear slight mistakes, testifying that they are all hand-made, one different from the other, each so very unique.

Not only in quantity but also in dimensions his work is very flexible. Architect De Lucchi conceived the most-ever sold lamp for Artemide, the famous Tolomeo – he loves to repeatedly mention that he is still searching for the reason behind its great success. He has designed new buildings for the government in Georgia, including a 225-room, slender and tall tower-hotel in Batumi to be finished in 2009, which will supposedly become a landmark for the state, celebrating its freedom from Russia. De Lucchi has renovated museum sites, such as the Fondazione Cini in Venice and the Triennale in Milan – erecting a controversial wooden bridge that allows visitors access to the new Design Museum, conceived as a piece of design more than a piece of architecture. And the list of his many achievements goes on. He also designed sofas for Poltrona Frau, glass vases for Arnolfo di Cambio, cupboards for Alias, never through all of this activity ignoring working with his own hands – sculpting small-houses, born from his most intimate drawings. The magical chemistry of so many talents effortlessly coming together is positively astonishing. Could it be, one wonders, that the secret to his many and varied gifts – as designer, as architect, as art director, and as entrepreneur – is hidden in his impressive beard?

While he serenely explains to me his philosophy and his way of approaching the world, he is gently stroking his beard, as if it might help him find the right word to express his feelings and, maybe, when conceiving of a project, provide unexpected suggestions. It is an extraordinary conversation. He is keen to know what questions I have prepared for him. His voice is calm, his eyes brilliant, as he gives away a piece of himself during our talk. And I’m going to steal from him one full hour.

Michele De Lucchi: The story of my life is the story of my beard. I have a twin brother, and we look so much alike that I still have doubts if I am myself or him. My personal battle through life, until I was thirty-five years old, was just to be different from him: this is probably why I studied architecture in Florence, while he was studying chemistry, two opposite educational fields. That’s why I decided to grow my beard, just to be different from him. Only recently did our paths cross more positively, when he confessed to me that he has started to paint – he did a marvelous portrait of me that I was able to appreciate. I guess at this point I cannot cut my beard anymore!

As he started the conversation by introducing his beard, an intimate piece of himself, I want to know more about the man, as I had already studied his long curriculum vitae by heart.

Maria Cristina Didero: In your opinion, what do you think is missing in our world?

MDL: We are really missing a general sense of optimism and security, which influences a lot of what we do. Most of the time when we do things that are wrong it is because we are afraid of the unknown, we are scared of failing. It is also linked to the idea of time we have nowadays. You see, we’re all anxious about getting things done and very quickly. It is just the rhythm of this society that dictates the rules of time. Instead, I love the course of time and to control it. I do have some rules for my personal time just as I have rules for the professional one, meaning the time I dedicate to the studio. For example, during the weekend I only work for myself. This is such a relief and brings me a lot of serenity, but actually I also think about projects and usually, when I’m by myself doing the work I like most, the most interesting ideas for my professional work come to the surface. During the week, instead, I am quite systematic. I would feel great to be able to wake up in the morning being able to improvise but I still cannot open my eyes in the morning without knowing exactly what will happen during the day …

Franco Parenti Theater, Sala Gradinata, Fondazione Pier Lombardo, Milan, Italy, 2000–2008

MCD: You have worked for some of the most important national and international companies. What is your relationship with the people who commission your work?

MDL: Bernini, the great artist, once said that to generate good works you need to be in two: if there’s no father and mother, art/ architecture cannot take place. If the artist is the father, then the person who commissions your work is the mother. When I was working with Olivetti, for example – De Lucchi was their art director from 1992 to 2002 – it was very clear that the design department was asked to shape the brand visions. With them, I have designed more than 80 machines, such as typewriters, fax machines, and computers, and I have always tried to interpret the company core idea in my work.

MCD: What about your collaboration with ENEL, which started in 1999. What is the difference about working on a typewriter and then switching to an electrical station?

MDL: In fact, there is not really a difference, at least in the approach to the commission itself. An electrical station works like a giant typewriter, the shape of both items gets dated and there’s a moment when you need to throw away the old and re-design it.

MCD: What is the difference in restyling an electrical station and a museum?

MDL: No difference, same approach as for the little typewriter. But what we did with ENEL was quite interesting and we did treat one of the electrical stations as a museum. I thought that it could be interesting for the public to visit an electrical station because it is something unusual. So I conceived a path, like the visitor’s tour you can find in many museums, inside one of them. The shapes of machines are very weird and, at the same time, appealing, with all the pumps and cables around them; climbing up the stairs with many that can usually be quite high, you can get a fantastic view of the surrounding area. When Franco Tatò, ENEL’S managing director, proposed this project to me, he told me right away he did not want to have just a simple re-decoration of the stations, or a simple restyling or esthetic improvement. Rather, he wanted to do something different, beyond the traditional schemes of architecture. We worked together on six stations, even if we finished only the projects in Ravenna and Siracusa. However, we even managed to organize a concert inside the first one! Museums are a place for entertaining people and at the same time they also have a didactic function. I viewed the electrical stations for ENEL in the same way. I was very concerned about the mood surrounding and within the stations and I looked for a way to make them more human and as well as to stimulate the interest of normal people in these edifices.

MCD: What is design for you? What is architecture?

MDL: Design is the discipline, the rule of cultivating yourself. Nowadays, we do not cultivate ourselves very much, or rather, we do it in the wrong way. TV and newspapers do not help much, I have to confess. For me, architecture should build spaces that are similar to human beings. I’ve always believed that architecture, on many different levels, is something that we all practice, something you’re born with and that most of us just do unconsciously. And all the time and research demanded by and dedicated to design and architecture are born spontaneously inside us; it is an “unjustifiable necessity” as Ettore Sottsass used to say.

MCD: And what is design for a company?

MDL: For a company, design is the moment when the company looks straight to the future.

MCD: How do you decide if a project should be realized or not?

MDL: I am becoming more and more suspicious about the market recently, especially about the diffusion of products. Usually a successful product happens very rarely, something like a mere 2 % of what is produced. The remaining 98 % melts into the corrosive liquidity of the market. As mentioned, when I designed the Tolomeo lamp for Artemide, I was surprised by its success and I tried hard to understand the reasons for its success, to arrive at the right recipe that would explain why it worked so well. The market has never given a straight answer to this question because it is influenced by the world of finance, which is always searching for an immediate result. That’s why I have lately been refusing proposals for design products, carefully studying them before taking a final decision.It is like signing a contract with myself. But I am not so happy about it as I know that design can be good for people. The masters of design – Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Achille Castiglioni, Ettore Sottsass, Vico Magistretti – all taught me that even the smallest object can contain a whole world, even something you can carry in your hand can be as important as a church, a public building, or a museum. Something that you can use every day and you can easily enjoy. I think our life is made up of objects that we have been carrying with us for years; altogether they constitute our past, create our story.

MCD: What is the striking difference between design and architecture?

MDL: Besides the dimensions! When you are asked to conceive a piece of design, you have in front of you the company and the people who will probably enjoy your piece of design – that is, if they buy it. When you deal with architecture, you have to pay particular attention to the fact that some people will “live” inside your project, they will become part of it. Moreover, at the same time you have to be concerned about those who will view the building from the outside, the ones obliged to take it as it is, a piece of space, a part of land busy with your project. The investors usually want to exploit the space as much as they can. Those who will live in the building want to have the best possible comfortable and enjoyable space for themselves to live in; those who only view it from the outside have to take it as it is, that’s it. In architecture, we really need to be concerned about all parties involved, and there are often more than two.

MCD: From among the great masters you named minutes ago, are there any with whom you feel very close?

MDL: Design had two Homeric masters, Achille and Ettore, who eventually decided not to fight each other in the contemporary era. Certainly Ettore Sottsass had an incredible influence on my work. I used to call him my master although he did not like anyone to refer to him as such. When I first met him in 1973 I was so fascinated by his personality that I just wanted to be like him. I started copying Sottsass in any and all ways possible – he wrote just in capital letter, I would do the same; he used to avoid pens in favor of pencils, I would do the same; I started eating in his favorite restaurants and even ordering the same meals as him. But then I quickly found my own personality too, and differences between us started emerging. It was a very interesting moment. There was a big difference between him and me. For example, Sottsass always refused the industry and the market, whereas I believe instead that mass production is fundamental for the development of the world even if it brings with it on occasion some very bad consequences, such as pollution, stress, standardization, and so on. I always try to work on different projects both within and outside the industry. I believe that my objects are not slaves to the industry; on the contrary, industry itself is made for design. Coming back to Sottsass, I have a last memory of him. He did not want to see the year 2008 and, in fact, he passed away on the 31st of December 2007, after the presentation of his last exhibition in Trieste, entitled “I Would Like to Know Why”. I last met him on the 23rd, just a week before, and he was in perfect shape.

MCD: You have many of your wooden sculptures in your studio. It seems that you have a very good relationship with objects and like to be surrounded by objects. Are you somehow a collector?

MDL: When I was working with Castiglioni - he was a great collector! – I used to collect hammers and spoons, of which I have many varieties. Then I like to collect drawings in my notebook, along with quotes I hear from different people. [He shows me his black notebook. I note in it this Ross Lovegrove quote: “Design is an instinctive act”, or Alvaro Siza’s “Architecture is the art of controlling indecisiveness”.] Ettore also used the same notebook to put ideas on paper.

MCD: It is always a weird question, but allow me to ask about what is your favorite piece of design?

MDL: There is a difference between good projects and good products; it is quite rare that good projects become also good products. Anyway, I’m fond of Eames, Castiglioni, Sottsass pieces and Apple products.

MCD: Among your projects?

MDL: I would go for Olivetti machines. Thanks to the printer I have won the Compasso d’Oro even if, unfortunately, it had a short-lived production. Then the Tolomeo lamp and the first Memphis chair.

MCD: Is there anything you don’t like, you cannot bear?

MDL: Even if I am not an actor and I don’t work in movies or show business, I don’t like the color purple. I don’t like it and I don’t have a reason, I’m not even sure whether it brings bad luck, but it really irritates me. [On hearing this, I quickly checked my clothes just to make sure I was not wearing any hue of purple … thank god I did not.]

MCD: In fact – aside from the architecture and the projects for important brands in design, you also have a limited edition products laboratory called Produzione Privata, that you initiated almost twenty years ago. Can you tell me more about it?

MDL: Produzione Privata has a long history now. It is a little company that I founded in 1990 in which I strongly believed and continue to believe. For its projects, I start from a number of pencil drawings that become objects through the help of very skilled craftsmen I was lucky to have found in the past. During these past years, I have built an incredible network of artisans that are able to emphasize the innate character of the materials I like most, such as glass, metal, and wood. With Produzione Privata I try to develop my concepts untainted by the industrial logic of mass-production and marketing so that each, single piece can help to discover qualities that may inspire tomorrow’s industry. These objects, created by individual usage and preferences, bring their own story and develop their own patina through time and they are not so dependent on mass judgments, as is usually the case with the market. Finally, with Produzione Privata I am allowed to make mistakes, something you cannot do when working with the market. Industrial production needs perfection, it is its essential core priority, beside selling a lot, of course. Craftsmen, handmade production, can be simply human and can tolerate irregular results, which in the end can result in charming effects.

MCD: And you also sculpt wood with your own hands, that is, with your chainsaw?

MDL: Hands are a part of our body that are closest to our brain [besides his beard, I would say], to our mind, to our way of thinking, to our creativity. Whenever I am in my house on the Lago Maggiore, I sculpt these little houses sculptures with my chainsaw. I feel they are able to express an atmosphere of intimacy and relaxation. For me it is certainly a very relaxing activity. They are built from little pieces of wood I find in the greenery around my house. I collect them and then cut and assemble them, one-by-one, piece by piece, with my hands. I think they are even comforting to a certain extent … and an architect needs to be able to transmit quietness and an aura of serenity.

MCD: Are you involved in any other craft activities when you are in your own little piece of heaven on Lago Maggiore?

MDL: Around the house in the country we grow our own plants and we use them to feed the family. I like to think that something ends up on your plate after so long, from the seed to the plant and finally the fruit that we can enjoy. That’s why I used to love the pasta con il pomodoro (pasta with tomato sauce) – it is simple and yet so elaborate to get a good one. It is definitely my favorite dish.

MCD: Pasta con il pomodoro is actually your favorite dish?

MDL: Now, after I met with chef Carlo Cracco to work together at the Triennale café, I am not so sure anymore …

THE ARTIST

Painter, sculptor, designer and architect – certainly the most legendary artist ever, the most admired, respected and feared. And yet very few people know his name and even fewer can recognize his masterpieces.

His innumerable works are found all over the world. And although museums own large numbers of them, there are so many that even museums cannot contain all of them. Indeed, there are many more to be found outside – in cities, public and private buildings, gardens and in the countryside. It is easier to find them in simple, humble and poor places, where nobody expects to keep everything clean and shiny, intact and unchanging through time.

He is a reserved character, not very often seen in public, who never attends meetings and assemblies and is absolutely never to be found at parties and celebrations. He arrives afterwards, apparently late, but in actual fact on time and more reliable than anybody else in the world: never an excuse, an absence, a failure to turn up or an illness.

He works untiringly, unceasingly. Nobody has ever seen him at a loose end. He spends all hours of the day and night scraping, etching, coloring and creating, and not necessarily in silence – at times even to the accompaniment of deafening bangs, volcanic eruptions, thunder and lightning.

He draws on the help of the most amazing atmospheric agents. Under his majestic guidance, dampness, rain, wind, snow, ice, dryness and heat all work at absolute levels of perfection, most definitely in control of themselves and their own talent, incapable of making mistakes.

He is not afraid of being criticized, judged or attacked by anybody. He is humble and tolerant, more patient than anybody or anything else in the world. He knows how to wait calmly and steadily, persistent but not insistent. His genius is inscrutable and unpredictable and he is well aware of his power over people and nature.

It is Time passing. If you meet it, admire it and be dazzled by its splendor.

Michele De Luchi, Angera, August 5, 2005

From the book “Tales with Little Houses” – Edizione Corraini

This article was published in LOFT The Nordic BOOKAZINE Summer Issue 2008 Volume #6. It was written by Maria Cristina Didero, journalist and design expert from Milano.