At the heart of the debates which over the past forty years have made design what it is, the work developed by Andrea Branzi stands out as that of a theoretician of design, as much in terms of his production, his writing and lecturing (comprehensive monograph).
“The relations between art and design are not easy to theorize, because they are always spontaneous and discontinuous. At one time art produced new languages and design used them. Today, though, we see artists using languages invented by design, while designers are invited to exhibit at Documenta, and in galleries and museums. It's clear, then, that this theory of a one-way transfer of languages is obsolete...”
(A. Branzi)
François Burckhardt is an architect, design historian and former director of Domus magazine.
Cristina Morozzi is a critic, design historian and independent curator.
Andrea Branzi (1938-2023) was an Italian architect and designer. From 1964 to 1974 he was a partner of Archizoom Associati, first vanguard group internationally known, whose projects are preserved at Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione in Parma and at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Since 1967 he works in the fields of industrial and research design, architecture, urban planning, education and cultural promotion. Author of numerous historic and theoretic books on design, he was a two-time laureate of the Compasso d'Oro in 1987 and 1995. Co-founder of the Domus Academy, the first International school of design for post-graduates, Branzi was Professor at the Third Faculty of Architecture and Industrial Design of Politecnico di Milano.
