Coordinator of the Id-Lab projects in Turin and professor of design at the Bocconi University of Milan
Biographical notes Stefano Mirti, designer (Id-Lab) and lecturer in design at Bocconi University in Milan, coordinates the Id-lab (Interaction Design Lab) projects in Turin. He graduated in architecture at Turin Polytechnic, where he also went on to do a research doctorate. He studied for his post-doctorate in Japan (Tokyo University, Tadao Ando Lab) and subsequently taught at the Tama Fine Art Academy in Tokyo. Since 2006 he has been responsible for the NABA design programme and worked as a consultant for Turin World Design Capital 2008. From 2001 to 2005 he was Associate Professor at the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, an education and research institute created by Olivetti and Telecom Italia. From 2000 to 2001 he taught at Tama Art University (Tokyo) and carried through various design projects, including the polycarbonate house and neon gardens. He also set up Now the Future, a digital atlas that documents design initiatives and events all over the world. Before going to Japan, he was one of the founders of Cliostraat, a group of architects, artists and photographers who design buildings, parks, public structures and exhibition halls. Mirti has won the European Architectural Prize three times (in 1995, 1997 and 2001). In 2004 he won the Bronze Medal for Cultural Merits of the Republic of Italy. His work has been exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, at the Triennale in Milan, at the Biennale in Venice and at the Beijing First Biennale of Architecture.
Designer and Professor at the Glasgow School of Art
Biographical notes Elio Caccavale was born in 1975 in Naples, Italy. He studied Product Design at Glasgow School of Art before going on to the Royal College of Art to complete a Masters degree in Design Products. His research investigates design, life sciences and bioethics partnerships, with particular emphasis upon collaborative research methods. His projects include, Utility Pets, a series of speculative products investigating the ethical consequences of xenotransplantation - the transplantation of animal organs into humans (2003); MyBio, a collection of educational soft toys exploring social, cultural, and personal responses to the strange and different in human biology and in possible transhuman creatures (2005); Neuroscope, an interactive toy linked to a culture of brain cells, which are cared for in a distant laboratory (2008); and Future Families, a collection of speculative products investigating social, cultural and ethical issues surrounding assisted conception and surrogacy (2011). Elio has contributed to research projects supported by Wellcome Trust, Art Council England and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. He is the co-author of Creative Encounters (Wellcome Trust, 2008), a book that explores the many opportunities and questions provided and prompted by collaborations between artists, designers, educators and scientists. He is responsible for the core program in Product Design at Glasgow School of Art and he is visiting lecturer on the MA Design Interactions course at the Royal College of Art. Prior to joining Glasgow School of Art, he was the founder and director of the MSc in Product Design at the University of Dundee. In addition, he holds a visiting professorship at Staatliche Hochschule fur Gestaltung Karlsruhe and an honorary professorship at Hubei University of Technology. He has held lecturing positions at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Architectural Association, Metropolitan University and research positions at Newcastle University in the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre, Reading University in the School of System Engineering (Cybernetics) and Imperial College in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. Elio regularly presents at conferences internationally and his work has been exhibited extensively, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Design Museum (Triennale) in Milan, the Science Museum in London, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Tapei, the Design and Applied Arts Museum in Lausanne, the Royal Institution in London and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. His work is in the permanent collection of MoMA in New York and has been published by Phaidon, Thames & Hudson, Die Gestalten Verlag dgv, MIT Press and Centre Pompidou. Elio is the founder of Elio Caccavale Design Studio, a design studio working across a wide variety of projects, including electronics and forecasting research. The studio has worked with a wide portfolio of clients including Mattel, Dmagic Mobile China, Orange, French Telecom, PBJ Japan and LG Electronics.
Biographical notes Irene Bell is a Programme Coordinator and lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art. Following her Degree study in Ceramics at GSA in 1983, she worked in Industry for a short period, designing tiles for an International market whilst creating a range of branded products for restaurants. She ran her own business for 12 years, producing work for exhibition and working to commission. This involved collaborating with architects on projects such as the Katherine Hamnet shop in Princes Square Glasgow and an award winning housing design in Tokyo, as well as producing her own range of Ceramics, which she was to exhibit widely at home and abroad. Her interest in the subject as a maker, researcher and as a teacher, have taken her to Iceland, Hungary and the USA to exhibit and participate in cross-cultural exchange of ideas to consider developments in Education and in the Ceramics Industry. Currently, her practice is in education, fulfilling the role of coordinator for the year 1 Design disciplines and the suite of Masters Programmes in Design Innovation, including lead tutor role in the Masters in Design Innovation and Environmental Design Programme. With the demise of Ceramics as a dedicated Degree subject within Higher Education in Scotland, she has diversified to operate across design subjects applying her experience and knowledge to emergent design areas such as Design Innovation.
Biographical notes The architect Alberto Iacovoni (1966) is a founding member of ma0/emmeazero (www.ma0.it), an architecture studio whose activity ranges from interactive multimedia installations to urban planning, which has earned him numerous awards in national and international competitions. He has also taken part in exhibitions that include the 10th, 11th and 12th edition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture. From 1999 to 2004 he was part of Stalker/Osservatorio Nomade (www.stalkerlab.it).
His works have been published in the most important architecture magazines and publications. He is the author of Game Zone, playground tra scenari virtuali e realtà (Birkhauser 2003; Edilstampa 2005), Playscape, published in 2010 by Libria, and - with ma0 - Borderlines (Damdi 2008), a monograph dedicated to the work of the studio.
He has taught in various universities and training institutes, such as the Istituto Nazionale di Architettura, Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, NABA in Milano and Cornell in Rome. He is currently Scientific Director at the Rome office of Istituto Europeo di Design (www.ied.it), the international Design training network, after spending three years as Director, from 2009 to 2012.
Biographical notes The architect Laura Negrini (1969) lives and works in Rome. She trained as a design engineer in the Netherlands, working with UNstudio on important projects and international competitions. She works with the architect Michele De Lucchi, with whom she is developing the project for the new image of Poste Italiane. In 2004 she founded the aQarchitetturaquotidiana architecture studio in Rome, which works in the field of the design and architectural planning of public spaces and services. She is the author of the monograph Ben Van Berkel (Edilstampa 2001) and also took charge of the monographic issue on UNStudio published in the magazine L’Industria delle Costruzioni. She has taught at the University of Design and the Arts in Venice, La Sapienza University in Rome and Cornell University in Rome. She has worked for many years with the Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, taking on the role of IEDDesign Director in 2009.
Biographical notes 1981. I have been trained as an architect but people today basically ask me to help them in coping with their role in the public realm. They can be administrations, companies, NGOs, private citizens. Sometimes architecture&co can be ways for coping. I am co-founder of snark space making. Arguing that the public is much more a product of the constant negotiating between subjects, places and authorities rather than a premise, Snark deals with the analysis and stimulation of this production in many ways. Snark is an interdisciplinary open network involving architects, urban planners, geographers, semiologists, economists and journalists. Snark acts in the private and public sector, on both a S and XL scale. My research interests deal with the role of collaborative practices in innovating design processes. I have been researching as well on painful heritage, strategies for the reactivation of abandoned buildings, the change in the role of design practices in contemporarity. What I do like at most is to collaborate.
Biographical notes Around 1980, Ko Sliggers was one of the iconoclastic young designers who contributed to what has become known as the ‘Dumbar style’.
After two years at Studio Dumbar, Sliggers worked as an independent designer, became a professional cook in Rotterdam, Italy and France, switched back from food to design, collaborating with Jan van Toorn for the Delta Expo, designed the first Rotterdam Foto Biënnale exhibition, designing post stamps and books, theater posters and exhibitions, producing challenging visuals at Studio Anthon Beeke and, in 2002, set up a one-man studio in Lalleweer, in the northern province of Groningen where he started his font foundry dutchfonts.com. In 2007 after the release of his book ‘Sus domesticus, the pig on your table’ he went to France to set up a restaurant. From winter 2008 he lives in Italy where was a chef on the island Lipari, teaches graphic design at Abadir academy, designs his fonts and collaborates with design studios. His cookbook ‘cooking between volcanoes’ will be published in the autumn of 2013.
‘Although he was trained by Chris Brand at the St.Joost Academy in Breda, Sliggers is not part of the Dutch tradition of literary, historically inspired type design. Sliggers’s work has always stood out for its energy and unconventionality.’ (Jan Middendorp in ‘Dutch Type’)
Biographical notes Studied at the Faculty of Architecture in Palermo and at Universitat Polite`cnica de Catalunya in Barcelona (ETSAB) obtaining a MA degree and a DEA degree (Project Department). Worked as an architect for ten years at the Arata Isozaki office in Barcelona she broadened her interests in intersection between architecture, contemporary culture, territory and current issues in society. From 2010 she is full time engaged as director of ABADIR Academy (Arts Between Architecture Design & Interdisciplinary Research) in Catania.
