Call for ideas: Autoprogettazione 2.0 – upcoming-event – Domus

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Italian Design Lab - autoprogettazione

Domus, in collaboration with FabLab Torino, invites designers, architects, students and professionals to participate in an open-source design challenge: conceive a line of furniture to be used in FabLabs all around the world that can be manufactured in the FabLabs themselves. A selection of the best designs, chosen by a panel of experts, will be realised and exhibited by Domus at the Milan Salone del Mobile in April 2012, published in Domus and made available for download on domusweb.it.

FabLabs are a global network of small-scale workshops offering cutting-edge digital fabrication technologies to communities all around the world. Autoprogettazione 2.0 intends to explore how these fabrication technologies, combined with the networked creative talent of the design community, can open up new horizons in furniture design and manufacturing.

The title is a homage to Autoprogettazione, which roughly translates as “self-design”, a visionary concept proposed by Milanese designer Enzo Mari in 1974. Mari’s now-legendary project consisted of a set of guidelines to create “cheap, high quality, long lasting and easy-to-assemble” furniture using only rough boards and nails. Mari’s project was at the same time a serious design proposition and a provocative invitation to consider the production process with a critical eye. Autoprogettazione 2.0 is an invitation to consider the potential of a diffused, localised manufacturing network combined with the self-build ethos proposed by Mari for the future of furniture design. It is an open-ended process that seeks to leverage the combined intelligence and talent of the design community and collaborative, open-source networks. Selected projects will be exhibited by Domus in an exhibition exploring the future of manufacturing hosted in Palazzo Clerici, one of Milan’s most prestigious palazzi.

The submission deadline is 27 March 2012. Full information on the challenge, manufacturing specifications and submission process can be found below. Although we are taking FabLab Torino as a reference environment, we believe that the designs generated in this call for ideas will be widely used, adapted and shared across the world for use in many different environments, including domestic an office spaces.
For more info:

domus – autoprogettazione 2.0

Shard by Renzo Piano

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shard renzo piano london

As it nears completion, the Shard is already one of London’s most recognisable landmarks. For its architect Renzo Piano, the only way is up

The views from the summit of the Shard are astonishing. London is spread out before you like a vast, moving tapestry. You can look out at Wembley Stadium and the Olympic Park, follow the winding route of the Thames and gaze down on the Gherkin and the NatWest Tower. Directly below you sits Southwark Cathedral, looking like an exquisite toy, and a mass of spaghetti formed by train lines converging on London Bridge railway station. This is the tallest building in Europe, and its viewing gallery, which occupies storeys 68 to 72, will become one of the city’s major tourist attractions when it opens in 2013.