C ERTAIN AREAS OF THE WORLD HAVE worthy than pencils? There is no alternative to the an innately MAKE-like approach to life. presence of industrial objects in modern life. Northern Italy (where I’m writing this install- A large tree fell near De Lucchi’s home. That ment of my column) is one of those places. Case in incident required a chainsaw. This was a chance to point: famed Milanese architect Michele De Lucchi. learn. Once he had his goggles and gloves on, De
For the Italian designer outfit Artemide, De Lucchi knew that the chainsaw had been radically Lucchi created the legendary Tolomeo work lamp. underexploited as a means of creative expression. The Tolomeo is bright, sleek, and ductile, with The 55-year-old maestro soon made it his business long columnar metal arms and tendon-like wire. to own and master a variety of chainsaws.
It silently bends and swivels at a touch, and stays Like many architects, De Lucchi spends much of poised in any position you may place it in. Since its his professional life making small-scale models of creation in 1983, the Tolomeo has been the number- housing. So he decided to refine his chainsaw skills one work lamp that designers themselves buy for by making model homes straight from the dead design labor. It’s the designer’s designer lamp and tree. No fussy stickler for mere handicrafts, has been selling merrily for decades.
Oddly enough, De Lucchi is not a designer. He’s “Every project is a voyage a “radical architect” from the 1970s, when young Italians rebelled at the constrictions of their discipline from idea to realization. and exploded laterally into postmodern home décor, There is an ocean of com- weird laminated bookcases, couture, electronics, graphics — in a word, most anything hackable. This promise in the middle.” eclectic approach has many practical benefits.
At Olivetti, where De Lucchi worked for 20 years, De Lucchi also added telling model details with a he involved himself in the production of some 240 laser cutter and a water jet. products, finishing his career there as the corpora- These chainsawed model homes look like they tion’s creative director. He also designed door pulls, were whittled into shape with a giant’s jackknife, but tape dispensers, laptops, chairs, vases, interior the unique models sold at once to eager art collec-décor for banks and hotels, and much more. tors. Some of the models were botched. Those, he
So far, so good: we’re describing a world-famous, discarded and wrote a book about: Twelve Stories multitalented Italian designer at the top of the About Little Houses. These chainsaw failures were profession. Now comes the really interesting part: too ugly to show in public or to display as art, but explaining why De Lucchi spent much of 2005 the effort to make them taught him useful lessons. making conceptual art with chainsaws. This resulted in a good set of design war stories.
Explaining the fondness for chainsaws comes “Every project is a voyage from idea to realiza-easily enough. To make his point, De Lucchi pro- tion,” he tells me in careful English. “There is an duces a cherished 12-year-old Italian fountain pen ocean of compromise in the middle.” from his immaculate jacket. It occurred to him The architectural lessons from the chainsawed that although pens and pencils are used with great homes are now reflected in De Lucchi’s ambitious grace, precision, elegance, and tenderness, no one Japanese eco-village development, outside Osaka. has extended this approach toward the humble, This is a big effort, an entire Japanese suburb, but industrial chainsaw. Why not? Are chainsaws less he has learned, he says, to seek his inspiration for
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