A+D+M #35 (december 2011) Cover Story.
edited by Cristina Rivadossi, photos by Enrico Basili
I started to work for Sottsass in 1977 when 1 was 22; in 1980 Matteo Thun, Marco Zanini and I became partners. There also was Michele De Lucchi with us, he was our older brother, he was not a partner but he stayed with us. Memphis was born in 1981 and I was one of the constituent members. This is how Aldo Cibic started out; coming from the Trieste province and adopted by the Veneto region and Milan, he works between the Milan and the Vicenza studios. A man tied to his land but eager to discover the world, two complementary aspects for him. And with a precise idea linked to happiness.
Who is Aldo Cibic, how you define yourself?
“I have been very lucky: having a master as Sottsass has been a privilege, he has always stimulated us towards a very open-mined viewpoint on the idea of experimentation. What 1 converted into my own view, what really counts, is a cultural approach to the project on the one hand and the idea of always feeling part of what a person does on the other hand.”
As you write in a small book, you believe that ideas are like seeds. What do you mean?
“That seeds are always a beginning, a hope that reminds us that everything has its own origin and that ideas are like seeds; this metaphor means that we must believe in the ideas, make them grow and develop them so that they can generate projects capable of improving ourselves and the people surrounding us.”
Aldo Cibic is a versatile person. Where does inspiration arise for you?
“Inspiration can arise from the most varied aspects, many times from reading newspapers or books, from daily facts by observing what happens to the people surrounding us: that’s to say, trying to understand if it is possible to do something in order to improve the reality around us. I feel as a sort of producer: with Rethinking Happiness or Designing our Future we invented some narrations that can give life to projects, all this conveys the idea of creating economic opportunities both for the producer and for the user. What I think we are trying to do is translating our search into concrete projects: this attitude is needed today. Rethinking Happiness is an example of an idea of planning ability that intercepts critical aspects and opportunities in front of a changing world. When young designers ask me for advice regarding what they could do, I answer that, in spite of the not easy conditions we live in, it is necessary, on the one hand, to become acute observers and, on the other, to collect useful pieces of information in order to identify potential projects regarding this future.”
In a text taken from Rethinking Happiness, you describe what “a beautiful place” is, quoting for example the condition in which children can safely play and in which the relationships among people are based on respect.
“I do not have the presumption and the arrogance of those who think to be able to change the world, but I believe that the point here is trying to understand how complex strategies can be organized so as to involve both the interested people and other competences in order to place the premises needed to plan, thinking about how life can be lived in a better way.”
How much is it important for Aldo Cibic that the project creates an emotion?
“Personally, I feel a great joy when something I planned makes other people feel a pleasant sensation or if it gets a smile out of them.”
Which are the projects you identify the most with?
“Those in which I perceive a meaning: they can be small poetical gestures, such as the objects for the tables I design for Paola C., or the new communities that can be seen in Micro realities or Rethinking Happiness’”. As a matter of fact, this is Albo Cibic’s dream, also described in a volume where he speaks about happiness, titled Rethinking Happiness and with the equally eloquent subheading -Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. New realities for new lifestyles.”
The project – realized for the Architecture Biennial 2010 – was born from a reflection regarding the historical period we are living now that “makes us face conditions and challenges that can generate substantial changes in the way of conceiving a different and more contemporary approach to the planning ability”. Four design ideas tied to new models of creating a community are shown here. Through the use of words, images, models, illustrations and suggestions, this authentic essay describes his thought linked to a different way of doing architecture.
“A planning ability that tries to improve – in Aldo Cibic’s words – the quality of people’s life on a social, economic and environmental level” with the awareness that “architecture, apart from styles, is the means to tell a story, to create a place where there is the condition in which beauty is to be found again”. Four design ideas are described in the volume: new communities, new polarities; a campus in the fields; rural urbanism; superbazaar.
New communities, new polarities describe the headquarter of an international company in the industrial area of a town at the foot of the Alps, redesigned in an abandoned area as a space to integrate and to become a resource for the territory. Or as a Campus in the fields where a young group committed to innovative starts-up decides to occupy an agricultural land surrounded by water in the Venice lagoon to create a condition of energy and environmental self-sufficiency. Or Rural Urbanism, near Shanghai, with a rural park with Low-density residences where the challenge is to create a model of community with shared services, new activities and relationships in tune with the territory. And to conclude, Superbazaar, a place where to live, meet, buy, sell, exchange, imagined in the outskirts of Milan, near the transport infrastructures crossing. It becomes the occasion to invent a new public space housing activities that are functional to the life of the district.
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