From architecture to design and back: the architectural roots of the italian design system

Abstract

The  histories  of  Italian  design  and  architecture  may  be  more  readily understood if one considers that many of theprotagonists are architect-designers.

Identifying  the  root  of  this  convergence  in  an academic  and  professional educationalsystem based on the idea of the "complete architect", trained to work at any scale of design, thispaper frames the work of the architect-designers within the cultural, economic and manufacturingcontext of the period between the 1920s and 1980s, when for historical reasons their role becameparticularly significant.

Furthermore, many design historians in Italy are the product of the same educationas the architects, and having followedthe same course of studies as the architectural historians, they acquired the same techniques of investigation and interpretation, which  they later  refinedin  their  own  fields.  The  theme  is  thus explored from the perspectives of the two authors, both architects but with specific training  one  as  an  architectural  historian,  and  the  other  as  a  design  historian. The relationship between the two researchdirections–the theoretical debate and its narrations, the relationship between designers and manufacturers –makes itpossible to clarify some of the aspects that distinguish the history of Italian design culture compared to that of other Western nations.