An eye on design

by Maddalena Padovani

Munari made it an ironic art object, Starck designed them by thinking of the human body, Iacchetti has redesigned them, doubling the function. The most famous and most recent inventions in the world of eyeglasses.

Some people think that to become an architect it is enough to don a pair of Le Corbusier glasses. This is why the site ‘A is for architecture’ offers their profile, for printing: you can cut it out and put them together to check out the effect of wearing the big, round glasses that were custom-made for the famous architect. It is true that glasses are the favorite and distinctive accessory of many architects, designers and creative personalities in general, who seem to reason that if they must where lenses, they might as well make them into something original and distinctive, almost an emblem of a certain aesthetic approach. Besides Le Corbusier, we can mention Achille Castiglioni, Daniel Libeskind, Karim Rashid and other designers, who in many cases have done the design themselves. But there are also designers who, apart from their own personal needs, have focused on the theme of spectacles, achieving interesting innovations in technical and functional terms. Experiences that demonstrate how the grafting of design and fashion can be fertile, extending the life of products and rethinking our ways of using them. The first and most illustrious example is undoubtedly Philippe Starck, who in 1996 proposed, together with Alain Mikli, the concept of ‘biovision’, or a collection of eyeglasses designed for human beings. The idea was to introduce biomechanics, to replace the traditional hinges and screws with the Biolink, a patented joint based on the human collarbone. A hinge completely free of screws with great freedom of movement, to guarantee constant grip at the temples offering greater comfort. Last October, Giulio Iacchetti presented an invention that sets technology aside to develop a much simpler concept: blending two pairs of glasses into one, or resolving, in a single object, the needs of people who have to use two types of lenses (reading and driving, clear and tinted, study and rest...). 4occhi is the name of the new model made by Aspesi Ottica Oftalmica. A double set of eyeglasses that can be turned upside down. The archetypal, timeless form, intentionally free of decoration and styling, expresses the simple but far from obvious functional principle. The list of famous designers who have worked on glasses could continue, shifting in time and space. We should definitely include the product-art objects of Bruno Munari, creator in the 1950s of the well known ‘Occhiali paraluce’ in bent, cut cardboard, but also glasses for watching black and white TV in color. And the ‘Studies for asymmetrical glasses’ by Gaetano Pesce in 1973, whose natural evolution might be the Sugar Kane line designed by Leandro Manuel Emede, based on the idea of asymmetrical lenses. If we look at the new products shown at the latest Mido in Milan, the most important trade fair in this sector, we can see that plenty of design energy is at work in this industry capable of producing record-setting sales figures. Among the most innovative proposals there are two models based on a rethinking of structural principles: 3Concept and Tornado. Designed by Pascal Lacotte, the first makes use of patented screwless technology to reduce the frame to a simple bar of steel shaped to support the acetate stems. This simplification makes it easy to quickly transform the glasses: with two simple movements it is possible to remove the front to replace it with sunglasses, or vice versa. Winner of the Good Design Award, Tornado by Derapage is a stratified frame, without welding. Three different parts in steel laminate, mounted with an original system of rivets used in microtechnical applications and fine jewelry, give rise to a highly technological solution for a light, practically indestructible product. Finally, the Charitas glasses by Theo, a Belgian brand that is undoubtedly one of the most innovative on the market today. The original line without angles, designed precisely to continuously follow the form of the face and head, has been obtained thanks to more than one invention, first of all a particular hinge that gives elasticity and, at the same time, strength to the metal structure placed horizontally, not vertically. The most original and characteristic aspect of this model is that the lenses are recessed with respect to the frame, which is reduced to a sinuous, minimal sign; in this way, they can assume a slightly converging position, ideal for our optical axis, which converges toward a single, though variable, perspective. The result: an effective functional solution for those who need to see better, but also an original, distinctive element for those who think of glasses as a tool for being seen. Architects and designers, first of all.