LUCE estratti Luce 327_Calatroni_Franco Raggi | Page 7

Flûte Magnum
FontanaArte, 1999
da manifatturiera a terziaria, si liberano
molte aree urbane che vengono occupate
da realtà produttive in crescita e che
l’urbanistica deve comprendere, favorire
e regolare queste trasformazioni.
Per Milano sono state la moda e il design.
Esiste la lampada perfetta?
Esistono le lampade “giuste”. Come abbiamo
detto prima, potrebbero essere On/Off o
Parentesi. Giuste nel senso che enunciano
in maniera chiara, leggera e non retorica
un’idea, un principio costruttivo ed estetico.
Verso dove sta andando il design?
Non lo so, forse va verso un’autocelebrazione
che diventa autoestinzione. Per fortuna,
commercialmente il design continua a crescere,
ma quanto questa crescita sia un bene per
rispondere ai nostri bisogni umani o filosofici
in generale, non lo so. Figure come Enzo Mari
o Ettore Sottsass ci mancano, ma torneranno
quando tornerà il piacere di trovare un senso
nelle cose senza la dittatura del marketing.
Ogni tanto si può fare qualcosa che non vende,
ma che ci dona le emozioni che un bestseller
non dà. Ad esempio, la Java, la zuccheriera
di Mari in melammina per Danese; è un
oggetto che contiene una genialità, un rigore
e un’etica unici. Se dovessi spiegare a uno
studente cos’è il design, gli direi di studiarsi
la Java, di comprenderne ogni suo dettaglio
e poi di ridisegnarla “a memoria”.
82
LUCE 327 / INCONTRI
Franco Raggi. For me,
light is all about shadow
F
or LUCE, I met Franco Raggi, the gentle
master of Italian architecture and design.
We talked about light, design and
human relationships. And of Milan,
his city of birth and life.
Let’s start with the introductions. Who are you,
Franco Raggi? And what is light for you?
To the first question I answer that I am an
architect, perhaps an artist, and by chance
a designer. As to the second question, I cannot
answer, as light is whatever each person wants
it to be. For me, it is the shadow. I see it more
negative than positive; I see it as something
you have to manipulate, filter or change,
manage and transform. There is no absolute
light. There are endless lights, that of the
Mediterranean Sea, that of a snowy meadow
without sun, that of a forest, the artificial
ones, or that of the moon, etc. The lights
are atmospheres, and knowingly constructing
them is the architect’s job; today they call
him lighting designer. And in my opinion,
this should have little to do with the lighting
standards, quantities and regulations.
I would like to start a movement against the
regulations, to free us from dimensional
requirements that only serve to protect us
from ourselves and from our distraction. We
should learn to know our limits and ourselves,
and then perhaps there would be no need for
regulations. I have never thought about light
except as a consequence, so since I started
designing lamps I have always designed them
from an emotional point of view. I have
imagined objects telling stories, no matter
if they were lamps, a suitcase or a vase,
a lighting installation or a house.
Fontana Arte, Artemide, Barovier&Toso
and Luceplan. Tell us about your collaboration
with these big companie.
Principally, I worked with Fontana Arte and
Barovier&Toso. For Artemide I designed Trifluo,
using a technology patented by the company,
and which Ernesto Gismondi had called some
designers to interpret. It was a RGB system
with fluorescent lights of three colours