When Kate St James and Isabella Dusi, two female designers from different parts of the world, met in Milan, they decided to start a specialist tour company called Italy by Design. The pair thought it would be a wonderful idea to inspire professionals to visit Italy, where they can experience and learn about progressive design technology and Italian artistic expression.
Although Kate was based in Australia and Isabella in Italy, the two women were determined to come up with a business plan. "Kate and I developed our plan to conduct design tours with the support of the Design Institute of Australia and architects and interior designers in Italy," recalls Isabella. Isabella transferred to Italy, with an interest in the Italian ability to embrace technology and encourage young product designers to head into the future. Kate's past experience as a Chapter Convenor at the Design Institute of Australia and an Architectural Tour Guide led her to invite architects and designers to spend 13 days in Italy. Rosemary Tilley is one of 16 guests who went on the first Italy by Design tour.
One of the places they visited was a textile factory. "Can you imagine," Rosemary recalls, "the awesome rattle and velocity as 14,000 silk threads pound in and out, and up and down, as a marvellous Rubelli textile grows on the loom before your eyes? It was as if the very latest research and cutting-edge technology blended with the ancient heritage of a sagacious Venetian merchant."
Isabella explains the importance of innovation. "For me, furniture-maker Cappellini resembles a fashion company. They always have an eye on the younger generation and are the first to introduce products by emerging designers. They were one of many great interpreters of ‘Italian style' and had the courage to promote innovation... They work with complicated and advanced concepts, have the capacity to build prototypes and their technologies ricochet and trickle into industries, which at first don't seem related to their technology."
For Rosemary, the wow factor was present throughout the tour. "In hard hats, we climbed into the Michelangelo Carrara marble extraction cave operated by Franco Barattin. A geologist, Sergio Mancini, took us right to the diamond saws. It was astonishing to be so close, to touch the raw product exposed on white mountain peaks and to see the capacity and technology for extraction and refining."
But the trip is not all about work. Italians never let a day go by without dedicating time to their benessere, the Italian for ‘wellbeing'. In Tuscany and Venice and on the shore of Lake Como, designers had time to walk and sip an aperitivo in a setting straight out of history books. It's so inspiring because you realise that Italians are not weighed down by the burden of their history. Stendhal, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Vincenzo Bellini and Mark Twain all adored romantic Lake Como. Yet within a small radius of Como are literally hundreds of Italy's foremost designers and engineers leading the way into tomorrow.
Guests also get to spend four nights in Lucca, Tuscany. Florence is precisely where man began to live in a new way and where the old and the new constantly merge. Isabella likes to track down projects that are being renovated in the hills of Tuscany. Rosemary says, "An architect from the Venice School feels that Venice is all about challenge, options, symbols, innovation and invention. We were tucked away in a hotel on Guidecca Island where we found a real local atmosphere and the shimmering face of Venice. Modern housing experiments at the Junghans by architect Cino Zucchi is an attempt to echo traditional features of Venetian architecture in an amphibious city confronting the daily myths and images of her past.
"It is said that the history of Venetian architecture almost exclusively consists of missed opportunities, but with a Venetian architect guiding our study of the Junghans, the inspired future of Venice came into focus.
"A short ride on the vaporetta and we were on the island of Murano where glass masters have developed and refined technologies with
a virtual monopoly on quality glass that has been around for centuries. The masters are not the ones blowing glass trinkets. We watched them work with molten liquid and it influenced my emotions - it was like a trick of the eye using an oblique design tool reflecting shadow and light. I didn't think it would be, but Murano turned out to be one of many highlights."
Kate and Isabella feel that architects and design specialists, like Rosemary, can derive a great deal of insight and inspiration from such a tour. Designers from Australia will be travelling to Italy in September. Architecture and design specialists in the UAE have also expressed an interest and made bookings.
Those who choose to travel in 2010 will also be able to experience the Venice Biennale. In addition to addressing the academic side of architecture, the Biennale is an occasion for big-name architects and designers to showcase their latest projects. The Biennale this year is directed by Japanese born Kazuyo Sejima, a leading name in contemporary architecture. Many of Italy by Design's guests are planning to extend their stay in Venice after they complete the Italy by Design tour to attend the Venice Biennale.
For details about upcoming tours, contact kate@katestjames.com.au, isabella@tourstravelitaly.com or visit their websites: www.montalcino-tuscany.com, www.tourstravelitaly.com
