DESIGN DIALOGUE

Conversations about 21st Century Innovation and the Role of Design in Education, Community, and the Economy

Design Dialogue is an on-going open forum taking place at West Virginia University that began in the fall of 2007. The goal is to promote a dialogue on the power of innovation in the new design economy. This site is one place to carry on that dialogue.

The conversation is continuing at the series of lectures and events listed on this page. Rather than concentrating on a single design discipline in isolation, these events will take an integrated approach. Local, national, and international thinkers from a number of design fields are being brought together to present ideas and promote discussion. To that end, see the short essay posted on this site “The Naba City” by leading Italian designer and architect, Alessandro Guerriero. He was present on November 6th (details posted under “Events”) for a conversation on the nature of design in the city with the distinguished thinker and founder of the field of archetypal psychology, James Hillman. All Design Dialogue events are free and open to the public.

Topics to be addressed throughout the Design Dialogue events include: innovations in design education, the value of integrated aesthetics in metropolitan design, New Urbanism and city planning, business design, livability issues, green design, and the power of design thinking. Specific design issues from those affecting the local campus and Morgantown to broader issues affecting the state and region will be explored. The goal is to draw together a variety of stakeholders?from educators and administrators, to business people, public officials, community members, and students?to engage in a constructive dialogue on the possibilities of innovative design thinking.

Design Dialogue is a collaborative and multi-disciplinary initiative led by faculty in a variety of academic units at West Virginia University. These include: the Division of Art-College of Creative Arts; the Division of Design & Merchandising and the Landscape Architecture Program-Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences; the Institute for Public Affairs-Eberly College of Arts and Sciences; and, Office of International Programs-Provost?s Office. (Contact Kristina Olson at kristina.olson@mail.wvu.edu or Dan Weiner at daniel.weiner@mail.wvu.edu for further information.)

Design Dialogue Events

All events are free and open to the public.

“Umbau = Transform”
October 24 (Wednesday), 2007, 7:00 pm, South Agricultural Sciences, Room 1001
Lecture by William Tate, Umbau School of Architecture and James Madison University
Reception following, South Ag Sciences lobby
sponsored by the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences

“Higher Education and the New Design Economy”
October 25 (Thursday), 2007, 7:00 pm, Brooks Hall, Room 202
?Welcome?West Virginia University President Michael Garrison
?Lecture by Dan Boyarski, Head of the School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University
?Reception and design exhibition following at 8:30 pm, Brooks Hall lobby
funding provided by the Myers Foundation to the Division of Art in the College of Creative Arts at West Virginia University

“Metro Harmony: Designing the Livable City”
November 6 (Tuesday), 2007, 4:00 pm, College of Creative Arts-Bloch Hall
?Discussion with Alessandro Guerriero, designer, architect and President of the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA) in Milan, Italy and James Hillman, originator of the field of Archetypal Psychology, distinguished lecturer at Yale, Princeton, Chicago, and Syracuse Universities, and author whose many books, including City and Soul, have been translated into some twenty languages
?Reception and design exhibition following at 5:30 pm, Creative Arts Center Douglas O. Blaney lobby
funding provided by the Myers Foundation to the Division of Art in the College of Creative Arts at West Virginia University

“The Future of Design Education and the International Context”
November 7 (Wednesday), 2007, 7:00 pm, Monongalia Arts Center-Tanner Theater
?Roundtable discussion organized by Dan Weiner, Director, Office of International Programs, WVU
?Participants included: Dan Boyarski, Head of the School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University; Alessandro Guerriero, designer, architect and President of the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA) in Milan, Italy; and Brunello Morrelli, Vice-President for International Affairs, NABA, and members of the WVU Disegno Italia Steering Committee: Eve Faulkes and Barbara McFall

Additional events will be announced. Please check back. For further information, contact kristina.olson@mail.wvu.edu.

Biography

Alessandro Guerriero is a designer who established Atelier Alchimia in the 1970s, one of the most vital groups in the evolution of Italian avant-guard design. He was the founding member of Domus Academy, the Milanese post-graduate design school, in the late 1980s, and in 2003 he was appointed President of the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan and of the Cultural Association NABA Futurarium.

Guerriero?s recent architectural projects include the Casa della Felicità Alessi?s family home; the civic tower for Gibellina in Sicily; the new Museum of Art for the City of Groningen, Holland, in collaboration with Philippe Starck, Michele de Lucchi, Coop Himmelblau, and Alessandro Mendini; and the ADV Museum with Oliviero Toscani for Benetton. His works are on display at the Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, the Twentieth Century Design Collection at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, the Groningen Museum in the Netherlands, the Louisiana Museum für Moderne Kunst, the Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf and the Museum of Modern Art in Boston.

Links
http://www.granserraglio.org
http://www.dressingourselves.com
http://www.alchimiamilano.it
http://www.alessandroguerriero.com
http://www.radiosity.it

The Naba City

The model of a city today resembles a nebulous cloud that pulsates continuously with moving elements shifting from its centre to its periphery and vice versa in an interminable exchange.

The technological web of both physical and virtual communication structures that enmesh the world finds its counterpart in the pinpoints of aesthetic presences created by architecture and the signs and objects of urban life seen as significant physical and luminous existences.

Two parallel and different presences exist in today’s city: the city of communications and the city of visions?the squares, the streets, the markets, the walkways, the stations and their décor. Both must be seen as aesthetic works, as elements of external theatre equipped with emotional and anthropological significance and suitable for a profound interaction with the inhabitants providing effective stage sets for the citizens.

The architect, the designer, the artist, set designer, graphic designer and the planner will all become new operational elements in these integrated works. Within this context, our role as design professionals is to highlight the production and reproduction of the city with strong artistic signposts that instill energy and, rather than creating indifference, induce people to debate, think, and view the city as more than just a place to be used.

(“Naba” refers to the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan, Italy. This essay was translated from the Italian.)