The best Italian design has been selected by Osservatorio Permanente del Design ADI in the new book ADI Index 2021.
Together with the products selected in the Index 2020, the 233 projects of this edition will participate in the final stage of the 27th Compasso d’Oro next year.
At the ADI Design Museum in Milan it is possible to see part of the products live, until 7 November 2021, in the exhibition that will then move to Rome.
ADI Index 2021 made its choices under the banner of 3Ps – People, Planet, Prosperity – the words on the agenda adopted by the G20 last July in Rome (the first to introduce the economic value of Culture).
The 233 projects selected (out of 1,017 applications submitted), in addition to the 28 of the Targa Giovani section, are as always divided into different areas that expand the “classic” section of Design for Living (48 products) with other fundamental themes in the Human Centered and Planet Centered approach (the centrality of man is no longer sufficient, as commented by the president of ADI Luciano Galimberti).
Attention to responsible design, sustainability and circular economy, which for several years has guided the selection of products in various areas, is now a “sine qua non”.
The choices of the Osservatorio which range in the most disparate fields, include, for example, furnishings attentive to the life cycle of the product and devoted to maximum flexibility, spray paper packaging for cosmetics (X Paper Lumson), laboratories for research in the acoustic field (Caimi Open Lab), interior design panels made with recycled plastic flakes (Wasbottle).
The most surprising projects fall into the categories of service and social design; in materials and technological systems; in business and theoretical research; in initiatives for the fight against waste and for the reuse of waste materials.
It is well known that good design can express and reflect new lifestyles and respond to new needs. But particularly amazing in this edition is how the health emergency has guided creative minds towards new solutions, brought design also to types of products non-existent before 2020 and inspired new expressive languages.
“Necessity becomes a virtue” Alessandro Colombo writes in the volume, speaking about “horizontal expansion of the area of intervention, no longer confined to the traditional workplace or factory, but open to any context in which daily life takes place”.
This post-pandemic ADI Index, collects innovative protective masks projects (Narvalo, Shield 19 Yatta, Cliu Mask, Oshield), furniture systems for distancing (Snake Diemme), desks for the home office (Macis Opinion Ciatti, Monoplano Errante), emergency container for intensive care (Cura Pods di Carlo Ratti Ass.), lamps and equipment to purify the air (SanificaAria Beghelli; Teleta Caimi), hybrid places designed to meet and work (TClub Tecno, Off Campus Nolo, Eitherland Metalco Workplaces), delivery platforms (Consegne Etiche by Dynamo and Comune di Bologna), charging stations for electric cars (Wall Box Rev), start-up for the digital growth of the country (Fastweb Greenfield), new software and apps for remote payment, banking services (Nexi, Vibidia), fitness equipment (D-One, Sintesi, Technogym Bench); initiatives to enhance public spaces (Piazze Aperte in Milan), research on food supply chains (Fruit for Peace, Il cibo non si butta, Frutta che Frutta non Spreca), disability support (Glifo, Twin).
Concrete signs of a real change in the ways of life, working, for interaction and inclusion.
And also messages of social tragedy, as in the case of the “Bauli in Piazza” demonstration in Milan which, with the strength of its theatricality and poetry, gave voice to the desperation of show business workers, unemployed during the period of the lockdown.
This edition of ADI Index, even more than the past ones, seems to be the photograph of a changing world and the drama that the world has experienced, but also the confirmation that beauty and quality design can contribute to solving problems and help us to live a little better.
Comment by ADI president Luciano Galimberti:
“People forces us to focus our view on the awareness of a broad vision of civilized, dignified and far-sighted coexistence, Planet suggests reflecting on the transition to green economies, for a relationship between man and nature where man is an equal and not a priority factor. And, given that only a world freed from the anxieties of subsistence can afford to look at and create the best that life offers us, we believe that Prosperity translates into an invitation to encourage technological updating.”