{"id":23530,"date":"2014-07-29T23:35:20","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T21:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/around-food-ovvero-tutto-il-design-che-ruota-intorno-al-cibo-2\/"},"modified":"2016-02-17T18:48:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T17:48:57","slug":"around-food-or-all-the-design-that-centres-on-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/around-food-or-all-the-design-that-centres-on-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Around food: or, all the design that centres on food"},"content":{"rendered":"

13 April 2010<\/strong>
\nThe story of an exploration of taste, inspired by the suggestions of Oliviero Toscani, which touches on the products of Paolo Parisi and the instruments chosen by Enrico Facini, to finally linger on the compositions of Davide Scabin, in the name of a shared activity: the research and design of a natural style, with an authentic flavour.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Furniture Salon 2010, the simultaneous Eurocucine show and, as every year, a special issue of Area accompanied by an instant exhibition, both dedicated to a particular area of research associated with design and the best industrial production, whose activities centre on design and research.
\nBut while the work of our editorial staff and our research centres of a known discipline, that of product design and in this case the design of everything that has to do with food, we must admit that the very subject on which this design centres is, in its turn, a discipline vaunting extraordinary traditions and exceptional interpreters, dedicated to an art that is a highly creative expression of memory and invention, tradition and innovative contents, even if it is a matter of a discipline that appears marginal with respect to our interests and is thus rarely studied in depth by architects and designers. In a certain sense the kitchen, understood as a chef\u2019s ability to interpret the taste and stimulate the emotions of the public, relates to nutrition just as the design of a space, of an environment and a domestic product relates to living; yet, if we consider that we know every aspect and trend of the latter environment, and that we are accustomed to examine it in every aspect of design and research, we must acknowledge that our knowledge of the culinary art is scant.
\nIn this specific context, having admitted that our expertise is as casual as it is superficial, how can we fully appreciate the aesthetic and technological contents associated with the design of a product concerning an activity when we are unfamiliar with its value and latest achievements? The question, of which answer is foregone, has therefore called for a parallel and simultaneous research in the field \u2013 entailing the analysis and selection of some of the best examples of design related to what one needs to eat, from the kitchen to the household appliance, to the plate, to the cutlery, and from ceramics to glass, to metals and the most sophisticated plastic materials; also this research has centred on design, of the food, its manipulation and interpretation. As this is clearly a matter of venturing outside our specific field of expertise to explore another, we have decided to start from the primary elements, or in other words the production of the raw material, of food.\u00a0On this path Oliviero Toscani – who is naturally more widely known as a photographer but whom the most refined aficionados know as a demanding producer of wine and oil – has introduced us to Paolo Parisi, creator and producer of food, a designer to whom we owe, after the rediscovery and launching of the \u201ccinta senese\u201d ham which he makes by breeding pigs and sows in the wild, the very famous eggs produced as design object, or rather as industrial design products, because even if they are the product of biological and natural methods, if not to say of wilderness and forestry, they all \u201ccome out\u201d extraordinarily identical and shining, both in terms of taste an aesthetics.
\nOur discussions on the quality and importance of the raw materials have been followed by reflections on the art of the manipulation and composition of flavours, and on the instruments necessary to prepare food; the former have been followed by a series of interviews with some of Italy\u2019s best chefs: Massimo Alajmo, Massimo Bottura, Paolo Lo Priore, Davide Scabin (by no chance teacher at the design school of the polytechnic of Turin). and as to the latter we have availed ourselves of the precious consulting of Enrico Facino, one of the very few designers specialized in the components used to create the specific environments necessary to achieve the highest levels in the sector of restaurants, even if this description of his work does not do him justice.
\nRetracing the evolutionary chain which leads from the raw material to its elaboration and finally to the creation of the space dedicated to cooking, we have met and interviewed a number of producers of domestic kitchens as Boffi and Bulthaup, certainly two of the brands that are best known and that dedicate most attention to the design of areas for cooking, in addition to Angelo Po and Electrolux, representatives of two leading companies in the sector of professional kitchens.
\nAt the same time we have asked Francois Burkardt\u00a0 to reveal the meaning and value of his research and knowledge concerning the famous ceramics of Rosenthal, and we have likewise investigated the historical productions of Sambonet and the current creations of Alessi. Finally, as could only be expected, we have picked up the thread again, examining the creation of products through the work of designers as Matteo Thun, Massimo Iosa Ghini, or the French firm 5.5 designers. It is obviously a matter of a reconstruction by fragments of a much more ample history, in which many extraordinary players have participated, whom we nevertheless hope we have included in our research on the basis of a vision which rhetorically refers to the part for the whole.<\/p>\n