Editorial

Gilda Bojardi

Wanted: very high design quality: Bringing new energies and established approaches into play, creating projects conceived and completed with expertise, responsibility and sustainability!

Wanted: very high design quality. This is an urgent need in a period of market crisis, with the sensation of austerity felt in many sectors. Bringing new energies and established approaches into play, creating projects conceived and completed with expertise, responsibility and sustainability, are undoubtedly big challenges. So even the ‘pipe dreams’ and ‘pet projects’ of architects and designers may suggest solutions. Two young Spanish architects, for example, Anna and Eugeni Bach, have built a quality home with just 70,000 euros, combining compositional invention with the use of local products and techniques. Pedro Gadanho, in Oporto, indicates a way of avoiding the separation between design and architecture, with complex geometries and colors. But, in the end, even neoprimitive forms, stripes and dots can orient research to generate new habitat qualities, especially in the landscapes of the Orient, from Beijing to Tokyo, contexts in which daring is an indispensable trait. To give form to the aspirations of clients who want to escape from alienating anonymity; to narrate multidisciplinary pursuits in shared spheres (residence, workspace, education, meeting places) required by increasingly complex lifestyles; and also to work around severe building regulations, transforming constraints into precious value. Another thoughtful design approach is that of William Sawaya, a personality with a complex background who refines contents of cultural contamination, focusing on unique pieces to combine, with passion, technology and craftsmanship, future and past. The idea is that we need to look beyond. And the eyewear sector is generating innovation in both technical and functional terms, with excellent economic results. Perhaps 20/20 vision, or the legendary eyeglasses of Le Corbusier, are not enough to make a great designer. But in critical times changing approaches and experimenting, without improvisation, combining the finest resources and carefully weighing the various ingredients, might offer a chance of success.