Practicing social distancing to fight against Coronavirus has become the new normal in the last few months. Most public spaces have adopted signs, stickers and displays to remind us where we should sit, stand or stop, but maybe not many designers have developed projects with a conceptual twist about them inspired by the social distancing rule. If you're looking for inspirations from the past, check out the work of Ico Parisi (1916-1996).
The Italian architect and designer studied in Lausanne and, from the '50s and throughout his career, he combined architecture and interior design with art. He designed experimental pieces, playing around with shapes, silhouettes and materials and creating elegant and timeless furniture for companies such as Cassina (his 875 armchair for them is a perfect example of a well-balanced design).
IIn 1954 he designed the Padiglione Soggiorno (Living Room Pavilion) for the X Triennale di Milano (Milan Triennial) and then his studio, La Ruota, founded with his wife Luisa in 1948, focused on private houses.
Already in the '50s Parisi started developing a concept for a living cell, conceived as an intimate and compact space for a human being, but he created the first prototypes of his highly experimental "Contenitori Umani" (Human Containers) in the '60s.
These pieces consisted in large blocks of expanded polyurethane foam with the outline of a human being resting or sleeping carved in the foam.
The block was supposed to be covered with a fiber glass and polyester resin shell, but the prototypes featured a sort of external metalic structure. The latter also featured four large metal rings that allowed the structure to be easily moved around.
Parisi devised different types of human containers - for one person or for a couple - this modular structure could be expanded with more containers that featured a studio or living room area, a playroom for children, a kitchen and a toilet.
The container was supposed to be electronically connected with a health support centre to monitor a resident who may have been ill without recurring to hospitalisation and there was also a container for children and young people that was instead connected with a central educational institution. Basically this modular structure allowed to change the composition of a house quickly by moving around the containers as if they were building blocks and choosing them in accordance with the needs of the people living in those spaces (this is also the main reason why the containers were devised as structures that could be hired rather than bought).
Simple, flexible and customisable, the human containers were supposed to be made in collaboration with artists and designers and Parisi researched some of these containers with Davide Boriani, Gianni Colombo and Gabriele De Vecchi, artists from the Milanese "Gruppo T", but in the end only two containers - for one person destined to meditation and sleep and for a couple, destined to intimate moments - were made in collaboration with sculptor Francesco Somaini.
There were obviously pros and cons behind these experimental designs: they were surely compact, flexible, modular and cheap spaces, representing a utopian form of design and a will to create innovative and futuristic habitable spaces, but they also hinted at modern society, new lifestyles, human self-destruction and alienation.
In a way Parisi's human containers anticipated modern social distancing, but also other aspects of our lives radically transformed by Coronavirus (think about online classes for students in our times and the way Parisi thought about a module connected to an educational institution) and they may still inspire contemporary designers new conceptual ideas to fight against this global pandemic.
Well found!
Posted by: Kmaustral | August 01, 2020 at 02:38 AM