LibroDriade
82Pages

3 DRIADE: A REFINED AESTHETICS OF LIVING Driade is a complex project about rened aesthetics of living. In its multifaceted and eloquent catalogue, Antonia Astori’s container systems dialogue with the furnishings of the Aleph collection: while the former organize space and constitute its skeleton, the latter is a multilingual laboratory of contemporary design. Over the years, the catalogue has displayed and promoted a rich variety of research, poetics and international trends, portraying Driade as a constantly changing, one-ofa-kind aesthetic experiment. Today, we can clearly see what has...

4 5 C 6 8 10 Publishing coordination Ester Pirotta Editorial coordination Francesca Sanvito 12 Photos Tom Vack Aldo Ballo p. 7 Claudio Tajoli from p. 123 to p. 135 N THE SEVENTIES THE EIGHTIES THE NINETIES THE NEW MILLENNIUM A thousand and another thousand! 14 SYSTEMS Oikos, Kaos, Pantos, Pantoschef Photographic assistant Giuseppe Cavanna Translations Antony Bowden Franco Mattoni Simultanea Snc E A plurality of brands Iconographic research Benedetta Cerutti Eleonora De Luca Computer graphics Artur Dudka T The versatile workshop Portraits and setting concept Vittorio Locatelli Editing...

6 7 2 THE SEVENTIES THE DESIGN ‘GAME’ The idea of play took on many accents in Driade’s rst works. But the playful character is not to be seen so much in the pleasantness of the elements, or in the light-hearted and essential tone of the colours. Rather, it is above all in the way that work and play coexist and nd their best linguistic understanding. If we wanted to identify one of Driade’s most prominent features, I would say that it could be recognized in the playful factor, in the tendency towards play. This is evident throughout its design process but especially in the planning and...

8 9 THE EIGHTIES THE VERSATILE WORKSHOP There is a special trait in a certain few manufacturers of furniture and objects, particularly for the home. In these rms, aesthetic requirements are not merely supplementary to functionality. Instead they are seen as underpinning the business, precisely from an economic point of view. In this period, while the major and classical visual arts such as painting were becoming clouded, attention was shifted to the minor or applied arts. The denition of design was blurred into them and absorbed into their history, which had had a much longer development in...

10 11 2 THE NINETIES A PLURALITY OF BRANDS The strategy of diversication is based on a precise instrument: breathe life into new collections,with catalogues that are autonomous but always dened in relation to Driade, and new brands, with their own characteristics and directed at a different target. This enables the development of correspondence and symmetry between the company and the new cultural climate. 1 3 Pluralism is spoken of with reference to the social situation, which is no longer seen as divided into classes or ranks within a pyramidal hierarchy. Instead it is increasingly...

12 13 THE NEW MILLENNIUM A THOUSAND AND ANOTHER THOUSAND! If the rst thirty years of Driade now make part of design history, meaning that it is possible to discuss them inserting gures and pieces within a wider debate on trends and schools, then the last few years, not only of a new century but also of a new millennium, are certainly still too near and fervent for us to be able to grasp them! What has the arrival of the 21st century brought us? 1 Continent, but also in terms of culture, with an attentive view towards Asia, Japan and India that has brought new faces, techniques and avours to...

14 15 SYSTEMS: OIKOS, KAOS, PANTOS, PANTOSCHEF “The fundamental work on systems, intended as the design matrix that cuts across all areas of the home, occupied Antonia Astori for many years. In Italy this is a scarcely practiced sector, in which form and function must truly nd an extreme synthesis. This persistent interest in the system, considered as the ideal category of containers, stems from a precise concept that the designer and architect of interiors developed regarding both the design of spaces and the design of volumes that the primary space accommodates, incorporating both in an...

32 33 SYSTEMS: SETTING CAPTIONS P. 16-17 Composition Oikos bookcase by Antonia Astori, three-person sofas (with normal and deep seat) and small tables from the Neoz collection by Philippe Starck, flower stand Hanahana by Kazuyo Sejima. P. 18-19 Composition Oikos for the living area by Antonia Astori, table Table by John Pawson and armchairs Zigo by Ron Arad. P. 20-21 Container Pantos 1 for the sleeping area by Antonia Astori, bed Faust by Mario Bellini with shelves Butler by Antonia Astori, small table Astrolabio by Oscar Tusquets, small armchair Liba by Borek Sipek. P. 22-23 Container...

34 35 WINDS FROM THE EAST: NAOTO FUKASAWA, TOYO ITO, KAZUYO SEJIMA, TOKUJIN YOSHIOKA “I have always been fascinated by an exceptional quality, olfating, this rare, innate, and as yet uncultivated, capacity of certain Italian entrepreneurs to identify talent. The Astori family guides this group of design lovers who have the capacity to make trendsetting design that emerges and spreads throughout the world. With intuition and skill, Driade has made a dazzlingly valuable contribution to the history of the best contemporary design”. NAOTO FUKASAWA KAZUYO SEJIMA Born in Yamanashi, Japan, in...

36 37 NAOTO FUKASAWA “When you look at something and think that it’s really normal it is mostly a question of objects that have permeated everyday life and show no trace of design. Otherwise they are new products that absorb KOISHI by Naoto Fukasawa Pouf with structure in painted fibreglass. Available in three colours: white, orange and blue. the essence of something that everybody recognizes or perceives as being normal. These observations help to remember that maybe it is better to cultivate a good product that lasts in time”.

40 41 TOYO ITO “Contemporary Japan, the best one, condenses tradition in messages of purity for the future. A project that holds its breath so as to breathe a SUKI by Toyo Ito Armchair with structure in satin-finished stainless steel tube and seat in perforated sheet stainless steel. more rareed and clearer air. A project as a distillate of happiness that must therefore be interiorized drop after drop”.