Sustainable restart are keywords that resonate loud and clear in the ‘Made in Italy’ playbook going forward in the post-pandemic world from an insightful webinar hosted by the Embassy of Italy in Kuala Lumpur in collaboration with the Malaysia Italy Design Institute (MIDI) of University Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), with the support of the Italian Trade Agency. Italian Design Day celebrated its 5th edition on 8 July 2021 with the theme ‘Project and Matter: new challenges for the sustainable restart of the Made in Italy’.
Focusing on the connection between design and sustainability to minimise waste and consumable, non-renewable resources, and to create healthier, more productive environments, the webinar commenced with welcome speeches by Datuk Dr Roziah Omar, President/Chief Executive Officer, Universiti Kuala Lumpur and the Ambassador of Italy to Malaysia, Cristiano Maggipinto. Then Professor Silvia D’Ambrosio of Politecnico of Milan, who is the ‘Ambassador of Design’ for this year’s edition, progressed on the series of talks alongside Professor Luca Fois, also from Politecnico, who was the ‘Ambassador of Design’ in previous years. Other participating guest speakers included Ar. IDr Dr. Tan Loke Mun, Principal of DrTanLM Architect, Director of ArchiCentre Sdn. Bhd, Founder and Director of DTLM Design Group; IDr Joe WH Chan, Honourary Treasurer of the Malaysia Institute of Interior Designers (MIID) and Principal, DesignTone Interior Practice; and Professor Ts. Dr. Khairul Aidil Azlin of PEREKA, the Malaysian Association of Industrial Designers.
Datuk Dr Roziah Omar, President/Chief Executive Officer, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, lauded the Embassy of Italy, the Italian Trade Agency, the Italy Malaysia Business Association, and other stakeholders for their strong support in the realisation of the Italian Design Day 2021. “I believe this collaboration and similar industry partnerships between MIDI and similar Italian entities, not only raise the standards of our academic quality but also ensure our students will be relevant to futurejob needs, enhance our graduates’ employability, and boost the growth of our nation. We hope to foster more initiatives: student internships, summer programmes and academic mobility with many more Italian partners in the near future.”
Furthermore, the establishment of UniKL Malaysia Italy Design Institute or UniKL MIDI, reaffirms the cooperation between Malaysia and Italy in the fields of human capital development, transfer of design technology and creative design industry. The partnership established between UniKL and other institutes or universities in Italy, which specialise in creative design, provides a viable platform to UniKL MIDI in the move towards establishing its position as a centre of design excellence in Asia. – Commending UniKL on their proactive role in supporting Italian Design Day, Cristiano Maggipinto, Ambassador of Italy to Malaysia cited three key words critical to this year’s event: ‘Made in Italy’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘restart’.
According to His Excellency Cristiano Maggipinto, “After the pandemic, our plans to recover and restart have to be sustainable, going forward. Hence the theme of the Italian Design Day 2021 is especially important considering this year is crucial for the defence of the environment, in the fight against climate change and the promotion of authentically sustainable development: all themes central to the events of COP-26, which is co-chaired by the United Kingdom and Italy. Italy will be hosting the Pre-COP and the Youth4Climate meetings in Milan between September 28 and October 2, and it will play an essential part in the COP-26 meeting the following November in Glasgow.
“Design can play an important role in daily life. Everyday objects have to be sustainable starting from their conception, if we really want to take into account their environmental impact. It would be good if our young UniKL students can be on the forefront of this revolution and dramatically reduce the impact on the environment through their sound, sustainable designs before we go into producing the actual goods. We don’t want to make products that end up being disposed into the oceans or thrown into the rivers. I believe good and sustainable design is essential for the economy.”
In her talk titled ‘The Culture of Sustainability: Daily and Designerly Practices for Greener Communities’, Professor Silvia D’Ambrosio of Politecnico of Milan who is the ‘Ambassador of Design’ said “small and simple daily actions have the power to change the production chain. Now young people are the ones raising awareness on environmental, social, energy and mobility issues. Led by movements such as the one inspired by Greta Thunberg, they have turned the spotlight on the need to redesign the world in a fair and more sustainable way. In fact, it is the youngest (Generation Z) who are willing to pay more for environmental-friendly and sustainable products.
“Even before the pandemic, one of the trends – alter-globalism for sustainability – based on the increasing awareness and concern about the social, environmental, and political emergency, could be attributed to the active involvement and engagement of people, groups and organisations. It’s this large transformative wave of social innovation at local and international levels that brought significant impact.” – Professor Silvia reiterated on how small, daily actions can be significant in reducing the impact on the earth. She mentioned how Naturalmente Sostenibile (a small Italian store), Susso (a growing Italian enterprise offering low-waste, household products) and Gglaska (a young Italian influencer) managed to create a paradigm shift through their own values, actions, and packaging such as reusable, cruelty-free, second-hand and plastic-free amongst others.
“Let people become the experts on products and services,” said Professor Silvia. “The urban space must reclaim its humanity using mobile, digital technology and interactive tools to engage with individuals, groups and organisations. People should not be considered as problems but be actively engaged as agents for creative design-led solutions.
“For instance, cities are already testing transitional social innovations by introducing the back-tobasics ’15-minute city’ concept where essential lifestyle needs: living, working, childcare, learning and recreation are all fulfilled within a 15-minute walk or bike ride. In this context, the design culture has evolved from a practice of designing things to one that’s helping to tackle complex societal challenges. As designers, we must think and design in more inclusive, fair and resilient ways.”
Professor Luca Fois, Faculty of Design, Events Design Class of Politecnico of Milan, in his talk titled ‘Kids Design & Sustainability: From Creativity to Product Service-System Design’ said “Sustainability is a long process, involving a lot of steps. Kids represent the present and future as does sustainability”.
“Design is culture and method to project; it’s a cultural movement. Now design is also a product, a service and a system, making it even more complex as systems are interconnected. Creativity and design will determine the project feasibility. Aspects that affect sustainability include materials, technologies, energy, transport, use, life cycle, waste, and disposal. The main goal of design is to create the Best Possible Ballast (BPB), to balance opposite values.”
Ar IDr Dr Tan Loke Mun, Principal of DrTanLM Architect, Director of ArchiCentre Sdn. Bhd, Founder and Director of DTLM Design Group, espoused on the importance of well-designed living spaces on mental health in his talk titled ‘In The End Nature Wins’. Drawing from his experiences and observations during the pandemic, Ar IDr Dr Tan said there should be a new Mixed-Use typology that incorporates the essence of a whole village or community in one building that combines future office and residential uses and should feature more integration of indoor and outdoor spaces, more natural ventilation for better indoor air quality, create more shared spaces such as museums, libraries, art galleries and gardens, limit work meetings to less than 45 minutes, dedicated online delivery and receiving office, and set-up screening and sterilizing rooms.
IDr Joe WH Chan, Honourary Treasurer of the Malaysia Institute of Interior Designers (MIID) and Principal, DesignTone Interior Practice, who spoke about his business tour to Milan in October 2019, recalled he had the opportunity to visit an Italian marble quarry, several famous Italian manufacturers of spa and bathroom furnishings, sanitaryware, luxury furniture, quality cabinetry and hi-tech doors.
Chan said: “As interior designers and architects, we know Italians are renowned for their design, workmanship and craftsmanship. After meeting the founders, owners, and the people behind the scenes at those Italian companies, we realise they are already evolving and advocating new and sustainable ways to manufacture their products. They still hold true to their legacy, yet they are adapting and innovating to move with the changing times and technologies.”
So inspired was Chan by the experience that upon his return, he chose to incorporate more environmentally conscious, sustainable ‘Made in Italy’ products in his first-of-its-kind hair salon renovation project. “It was a knowledge and technology transfer exercise where Malaysians were trained in Italy to apply the stone finishing. When faced with the pandemic, sheer grit and survival instinct will push us to pivot and innovate. We can adapt, restart, act quickly and decisively.”
Professor Ts. Dr. Khairul Aidil Azlin of PEREKA, the Malaysian Association of Industrial Designers touched on the sustainable strategies of managing existing resources and making better use of sustainable materials like bamboo.
Besides highlighting how sago waste can be transformed into floor tiles and acoustic panels, he also shared how sago starch and sago waste can be used to replace paraffin wax to improve the production of local batik. In addition, the professor also touched on the bamboo and screwpine (mengkuang) as sustainable materials.
To end the session, attendees of the webinar were welcomed to pose their questions to the guest speakers, addressing issues such as the value of sustainable, eco-friendly products, and the future of building designs and architectural elements to be included for the betterment of mental health and community wellness. Screenings of video montages of Malaysian and Italian students’ works as well as Milan’s famous furniture fair wrapped up the online event.
In conjunction with Italian Design Day, the 90-minutes recently produced Italian animated movie TRASH will be screened (in English) for free for the first 500 people until 15 July 2021 via https://www.mymovies.it/ondemand/iic/movie/8551-trash/. The movie recounts the story of Slim, a damaged cardboard box who lives in a market with his friends. He tries to survive from cleaning machines, and he soon loses hope, even from believing that a second chance exists in a mythical “Magic Pyramid”. In addition to the movie screening, there will also be TRASH!, a virtual exhibition dedicated to the themes of sustainability, environment protection and recycling and reusing waste materials. Visitors can walk through various ‘virtual rooms’ and over 200 works of drawings, storyboards and selection of video materials from the movie by requesting a password from kualalumpur.rsvp@esteri.it and visiting www.trashexhibition.it.