Abitare meets Patricia Urquiola, Stefan Diez and Marco Romanelli at MAKK Museum. Cologne, Jan 17th

During imm cologne 2012, Patricia Urquiola, Stefan Diez and Marco Romanelli will have an Abitare's talk at MAKK Museum. Is furniture design an offshoot of architecture or a branch of product design? The debate will explore the two main possibilities open to designers - the Italian way, a continuation of design history and the achievements of the great design masters, according to which the road to furniture design is through architecture, and the German way according to which furniture design is a specific offshoot of product design.

Personal experience, training, the organizational structuring of the key manufacturers and a variety of historical considerations will be taken into account as we seek to define differences between two approaches to design that seem clear enough in principle, but quickly blur when one considers the careers and achievements of these three practicing designers.

One question underlies the entire discussion: is it still possible to imagine a “complete designer” like Alvar Aalto or Gio Ponti, motivated and equipped to address issues relating to the “human environment” in the broadest sense, or is the trend towards ever-greater specialization and complexity so irreversible as to admit only more inclusive forms of cross-disciplinary collaboration in design?

Abitare at makk, Cologne
Design's two ways

Köln, 17 January at 18.30

MAKK
Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln
Museum of Applied Arts Cologne
An der Rechtschule 50667, Köln
Overstolzen-Hall

More info