After more than three months of isolation on the coast of northern Tuscany in Forte dei Marmi, Milanese designer and architect Piero Lissoni is getting ready to head back to the studio. He spoke with More Space for #futuretogether about the impact the pandemic has had on the design industry in Italy and his optimism for the future, how lockdown has reconnected him with the importance of simple pleasures and slowing down, his current projects and how he has kept connected with his team around the world, and his personal manifesto for change.
More Space: Hello Piero and thanks for joining us.
Piero Lissoni: Good afternoon.
How are you and how are things in Italy?
Well, thank you. It was a little bit dramatic but now the feeling it's not so bad. Of course we need to be very, very conscious because otherwise we jump inside the same nightmare as China, but it's okay. Here we are, we start again.
What is the mood there now and how are the design and manufacturing Industries faring?
During the lockdown the factories were closed only for a few weeks and they reopened in the middle of April. I work with old factories and they work with a lot of engineers from B&B Italia, Kartell and Flos. During the lockdown we continued to develop prototypes like before. Now the mood is a little bit better because the factories have started to work again. Of course, you need to put it down on paper to see the picture. We have all lost more or less 20 per cent from the market but we are quite optimistic that by the end of the year it should be about 10 per cent.
How have you been working over the past few months?
By February 28 we decided okay, now it's time to close the studio because I understood the situation and it was a little dangerous for everybody so we decided to lockdown over three months ago. To be honest it was not easy. The design profession is a human profession with a lot of human crossovers. You need to talk with people, you need to see, you need to stay in touch, you need to chat. In the end we are social monkeys and for that reason it was not easy. But we discovered how to work from home and It was not so bad. We lost a bit of efficiency in the first two weeks because we were not ready to accept this kind of new methodological approach but after that… Unfortunately, I have to work day and night, Saturday and Sunday too without any breaks, but it’s okay.
I think a lot of people in the design industry have worked harder and longer during lockdown, and of course there is no commuting time either so every moment is work.
I decided to move to my girlfriend's house in Tuscany in Forte dei Marmi. We stayed here and it was a good choice because our house is in front of the seaside. If only for the view, it was better. Unfortunately you could not walk. It was like being a child in Disneyland, it is possible to go inside, but without the tickets.
Durng the three months of isolation in Italy, Piero Lissoni worked, exercised and cooked in a house on the coast of northern Tuscany in Forte dei Marmi. Photo c/o Piero Lissoni.
So, how did you maintain momentum while you were housebound?
We did a different exercise session every day for three quarters of an hour using tutorials for legs and arms. We also decided to strictly use one room for eating and we ate a main meal only once a day. We are more or less vegetarian so more or less zero meat. So, one normal dish and for the rest of the day fluids and fruits, that’s it. It was so funny because during the lockdown we completely changed the rules. Sometimes we woke up very early in the morning and started to work immediately, or sometimes we lost a little bit of time. We decided that 4 o’clock was a good time for a meal, but before that coffee, a nice cappuccino, and after some biscuits. You know, we changed completely the rhythm in a way but we didn’t forget to stay inside. Like performing monkeys we dressed correctly every day. We prepared the perfect dinner, or the perfect lunch, or the perfect breakfast with different ingredients in a beautiful way. During lockdown it was almost impossible to buy flowers, but we found one flower seller and we picked a lot of flowers from our garden so in the end we tried to live with another level of freedom. We set a lot of goals and we respected all of them.
The importance of simple pleasures is highlighted in a crisis like this.
Yes, I remember now so much beauty when I walked from home or from the studio to catch the metro, take a good coffee, espresso of course, in a small cafeteria nearby or visiting the flea market to buy flowers. I discovered some important small thoughts and some important super beautiful simple things. With the lockdown, things were slower and I like the idea to start again and to do something very, very simple.
How did you stay connected with your team around the world?
In the studio we connect via WebEx which is a Cisco system. We use two different WebEx connections and we also use Microsoft teams. Sometimes we use Zoom if we don't have to discuss something particularly private. In the end, my agenda was organised by my assistant and she organised my meetings all around the world with clients, factories, construction teams, engineers and local architects so we continued to work like we were in Milano. We were well trained before the crisis more or less. We have projects in China, Korea, Japan, Russia, Israel, Lebanon, the United Emirates and Mexico City, the US and Canada, so we are able to work remotely and we continued to use exactly the same model during the lockdown. For us, it was not a great change we were very well prepared. In September I had decided to change the hardware in the studio. We put in a new virtual server from Dell in New York and Milano which has completely changed our lives. We took away the classical workstations and everything had a new level of functionality inside a super server. It saved us.
The Dock Sofa system designed by Piero Lissoni for B&B Italia for a flexible living/working landscape at home. Photography c/o B&B Italia.
"...after the lockdown worldwide, a lot of people are starting to think about evolving the house into something that is a bit more interesting. I am not talking about style or beauty, I think people are rethinking the role of the home."
Piero Lissoni
We are at the beginning of a new decade, how do you think that covid-19 and lockdown is going to shape design and architecture into the 2020s?
We have to shift the problem in a few different directions, The first one is this incredible tragedy and we need a new way to think about it. For example, we need to start again and to think in a good way if it's possible to invest more energies inside our private home. Thinking about many different countries and people, sometimes they invest incredible quantities of money for something I call good for showing off – big cars, fantastic travels, beautiful watches or Italian shoes. I am joking a bit here, but often they don’t spend money inside their home because the home for many is considered super private. But after the lockdown worldwide, a lot of people are starting to think about evolving the house into something that is a bit more interesting. I am not talking about style or beauty, I think people are rethinking the role of the home.
The second one is another shift to a problem. In Milano and in many other places, people now understand the possibility of using less cars and more bikes and other alternative systems of course, because for the moment it is not secure to use public transportation. Before the lockdown Milano had very efficient public transportation, by metro, by train, by tram, by bus, by car sharing. Well, now in the last few weeks we discovered a lot of people like to use bikes. Well, this one is a good change. But can you imagine if we start to work only from home, it is a nightmare. We need to be back in the office, we need to be back in the social life, we need to be back in the community and I hope the real change will be a vaccine for the virus. We need medicine so that we can get back again to our life. We need something super efficient because we don’t know what will happen in the future, we need now to accept that globalisation means the risk is all around the world from the North Pole to Antarctica. I don’t believe in the dramatic attitude that we need to completely change cities and to change transportation and live in the countryside. Come on. I like to be realistic and I like to be honest.
A careful integration of industrial warehouse into landscape, the Fantini HQ is located on the banks of Lake Orta in northern Italy. Photography © Simone Bossi.
The 75 Café and Lounge is located inside a typical village house in the mountain resort of Ponte di Legno in Brescia, northern Italy. Photography © Thomas Pagani.
Camparino in Galleria in the Piazza Duomo retains the Art Nouveau details with a subtle, delicate intervention by Lissoni Associati. Photography © Santi Caleca.
"My personal manifesto is stop! When it is possible to use a bike, don’t use the car. It’s a small step. You want to buy two pears but they are in a plastic container, don’t buy it. Stop and be a bit more natural but in a good way, not in an ideological way. And in the same way, if you buy a piece of furniture, don’t buy it like fashion. One pair of chairs should be for many years, we all have to be responsible for our choices."
Piero Lissoni
What projects are you currently working on?
We have a lot of projects under construction. A beautiful old scale steel factory in Beijing which we are transforming into a hotel. We were determined not to destroy the old factory so we have put the new hotel inside. We also have a big project in Moscow. The building was constructed during Stalin’s time and we took away some additional buildings from the 1960s and 70s that were very ugly and we saved the original design by one of Alexander Rodchenko’s assistants. It is a boutique hotel and residencies, with beautiful shops and a market for local food. During the process we discovered a lot of new artisans and small factories that make incredible things. We have a big residential project and offices in Budapest, a golf course north of Budapest on Lake Balaton which is a beautiful place with amazing nature. An interesting new house in Amsterdam on the canal, new buildings in the old part of Frankfort, and new projects in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv… we have projects all around the world, including Italy of course.
Li Edelkoort recently said that a serious crisis should never go to waste, if you had a blank page what would you put on that page?
In these last three months I understood that we need to be more conscious. We need to stop using too much energy, we need to think about how much pollution we produced in the past and be ready to meditate it for the future. We need to look at how much stupid packaging we use everyday for nothing, and how much travel we did. I remember three months ago for me it was quite easy and quite normal to fly all around the world just for a meeting. Now, after the coronavirus I understand it is possible to do the same thing by screen and electronics and that one is a huge change. We need to be really green, not by chatting but by our actions. Stop using cars, stop flying, because that uses an incredible level of pollution, and stop eating meat for example. Forty-two per cent of the general pollution worldwide is due to Intensive farming practices. We need more intelligence. Otherwise we talk all of our lives about the ideological position and everything is covered by this kind of optimistic attitude. We say we need to be better but we don't move one finger. My personal manifesto is stop! When it is possible to use a bike, don’t use the car. It’s a small step. You want to buy two pears but they are in a plastic container, don’t buy it. Stop and be a bit more natural but in a good way, not in an ideological way. And in the same way, if you buy a piece of furniture, don’t buy it like fashion. One pair of chairs should be for many years, we all have to be responsible for our choices.
How much more time will you spend on the coast?
We are ready now to move back to the studio but with a lot of attention. We will divide the work day into three parts, which means the studio will be open 24 hours and our team will be divided into three groups so we also divide into three the risks. We are Italian but with a bit of Anglo Saxon blood, so we always work very, very well.
Thank you Piero, as always it was a pleasure to talk with you.
