This week, Design in Dialogue offers something different: a three-part interview with the great luminary of Italian design and architecture, Andrea Branzi. In this important series of conversations, Dr. Catharine Rossi – a UK-based design historian, and Professor of Architecture at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) Canterbury – speaks with Branzi about his long and influential career. Interviews are conducted in Italian with English subtitles.
Part 1 Origins: Andrea Branzi on Radical Design
An introduction to Andrea Branzi’s background, early career, and involvement with radical design collectives such as Archizoom, Global Tools, and Alchimia. Read translated transcript HERE.
Part 2 Andrea Branzi’s Design Approach: No Stop City and Beyond
Taking one of his most well-known projects, No Stop City (1969), as its departure, Branzi presents his ideas about urbanism and the history of utopias, framing these issues in relation to the contemporary politics of neoliberalism. Read translated transcript HERE.
Part 3 La Cultura del Progetto: Andrea Branzi on Designing Culture
The series concludes with a conversation about broader cultural understandings of design, taking in the full scope of Branzi’s expansive work – including his roles as curator, writer, editor, and educator. Read translate transcript HERE.
Inaugurated in April 2020 in response to the pandemic lockdown, Design in Dialogue began as a way simply to keep the conversation going, and offer a meeting place for the design community.
Over time, the series has become an opportunity to expand the dialogue in unprecedented ways, exploring the breadth and diversity of design. Guests are able to speak safely and freely, in a conversational format offering audiences access to the full dimension of their practices.
We have recorded dialogues with over a hundred designers, makers, artists, architects, critics, historians, writers and curators, and heard them discuss their work and ideas in-depth, direct and unfiltered. To date, the series has been viewed over 700,000 times through our two channels (YouTube and Vimeo) and our distribution partners Dezeen and Designboom.
The world is shifting gears again now, as online connection gives way once more to in-person events. With this in mind, we have decided to transition from our regular weekly broadcast. Design in Dialogue will still continue in the fall of 2021 and beyond, with occasional new interviews. The archive will remain freely viewable in perpetuity, serving as a vital primary source of this moment.
