Platform_Architecture_and_Design_1.pdf

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in order to visualize alternative solutions. What I think is
important is to always have the chance to think about the
meaning of things.
LB From the outside, efforts were made to counter a design
linked to industry with that activity that was supposed to be
less dominated by the industrial world, but which ended up
by being perhaps even more elitist...
MDL You end up setting industry against craftsmanship, but
the two activities are closely interconnected. In actual fact,
today, they represent two faces of the same coin: even those
industries that pay close attention to market distribution,
like Hermes, Baccarat and Sevres, with whom I have recently
established partnerships, are in reality closely connected
to handmade production and they are concerned that their
products can be repaired. The turnover of these companies
reach several billion Euros, and yet they think up products in
which handicraft skills and production are highly valued.
LB In this sense we have a lot to learn in terms of identifying
growth opportunities for Italian businesses...
MDL We should learn to make use of the “story”.
The French are masters at this; they manage to make a
memorable tale out of every piece executed.
LB It’s possible in this to recognize a long tradition with the
impetus given to large State manufacturers, that anticipated
industrial production processes…
MDL …and with the tradition of the Encyclopédie, where a
systematic reasoning about the world allows the construction
of a framework for techniques and knowledge, language and
function.
LB Processes start from a distance... what hope do you see for
Italy today, in this context?
MDL I believe that this moment is a tremendous opportunity
for our country. I see an attempt to create a shared system
which will allow all the individuals involved to create a
dialogue between them. This route is dangerous and difficult,
but there is the chance of getting to a system of direct
democracy, which while giving up on in-depth skills, is
attempting to reach shared objectives. In this urgent search
for a common denominator, skills are surrendered, because
it’s too difficult to achieve, compared with the average
requests, but we are approaching a design for working
positively on all the individual levels and doing so in such
a way that everybody can co-exist. This is a tremendous
objective. Dialectics are important. I always cite the example
of research by entomologists into the organization of anthills:
the most part are worker ants, a few of them are dedicated
to procreation, some to the management of stores, some to
safety and others are saboteurs. This critical part is healthy
and keeps the organism alive because it allows unexpected
evolution, lateral wastage. It is essential to constantly have
an alternative unorthodox point of view, there’s no virtue
without vice.
LB In your work you’ve done a lot of things by now; what
appeals to you most, designing buildings, installations,
objects, or is everything part of a single approach?
MDL What matters is the search for a deeper meaning. I’m
an architect and I’m interested in creating things to exist in
the world. For architecture to have meaning it must appeal
to deeper messages that can be recognized as common.
I learned a lot working for years in Georgia (from 2006
to 2013), were I had to be able to interpret their need to
distinguish themselves from Russia and at the same time
I was aware that architecture can also become a bridge for
peace. I understood that it is important to create artefacts in
which people can recognize their own peculiarities.
Ultimately it’s all down to the same thing: we want to be