These chainsawed model homes look like they were whittled with a giant’s jackknife.

bigness in that which is small, simple, and intuitive. designs. Produzione Privata is deliberately small, Big, corporate research-and-design teams are all but it sells real products and it has a real budget. very well in their place, but they are big by nature, The next and final step is the De Lucchi architecture and concerned with big resources. So, they are firm, aMDL, which does large-scale urban work in always anxious to avoid big mistakes. Germany, Russia, Japan, Italy, and elsewhere.

One cannot experiment properly in a state of These different levels of creative scope do not
anxiety. Creativity is closed off by fear. It’s even conflict. Instead, they support and refresh one
worse to fail to be anxious at a big scale. It’s wrong another. One level is no more or less “serious” than
to arrogantly experiment with the lives and fortunes the next. They are a creative ecosystem, where the
of a company’s employees and stockholders — as if scale and muscle of the bigger firm can shelter the
those many people didn’t matter. little greenhouse of the new, and where the small
By their nature, big companies and mass produc- innovative experiments can provide a unique edge
tion will “commercialize, marketize, banalize, and and unheard-of innovations for the bigger outfit.
globalize.” But if industry is to improve the world, “There is no alternative to industrial organiza-
industry needs something truly good to work on. tion,” says De Lucchi. “But we must also believe that
Therefore, De Lucchi has divided his own work we have the chance to reach a better world through
into sets of physical scales. First, there are the small industry. An industry is more than a public invest-
things he does alone in a home office: “experiments, ment. If man believes in industry, but industry fails
searches, and fun.” By design, these efforts have no to believe in humanity, the planet is finished.”
deadlines, no clients, no deliverables, no budget, and I don’t know about the planet, but having met
they are done without commitment to anybody. De Lucchi, I know that Milan and he are the polar
At the next level comes a small company called opposite of “finished.” They have found the means,
Produzione Privata (Private Production). This motives, and opportunities for elegant innovation.
atelier features De Lucchi himself, his design assis-
^{tant, a bookkeeper, and a producer, whose job it} Bruce Sterling ( bruce@well.com) is a science fiction writer
is to outsource the manufacturing of De Lucchi’s and part-time design professor.