Komorebi

SGUARDI SUL MONDO

Designing today means casting our gaze as far as possible, because the circulation of ideas and the production of objects and products for everyday life can no longer ignore the anthropological transformations that, each day, emerge within a system of immediate communicative and cultural connections. These are present on our design and production tables, prompting us to question the near future – while recognising that the past already forms part of our map of orientation. Desiree has always designed and produced its collections by looking beyond its own identity, in search of a concrete and attainable future. It is for this reason that a collaboration was established with one of the most advanced and internationally oriented schools in Italy, Domus Academy. Under the guidance of a research group led by Course Leaders Elisa Chiodo and Alessandro Squatrito, together with Setsu & Shinobu Ito as Project Leaders and Federica Ricci as Project Expert, thirty students from all over the world addressed the theme of the relationship between “nature and artifice”. Their work focused on developing a seating system capable of interpretino the company’s philosophy while also capturing the spirit of its time. All this took place within a framework of interpretative freedom—shaped by individual cultural backgrounds - without overlooking the requirements of the company’s production and industrial systems, among the most advanced in the sector. Utopia and freedom, on one side; on the other, the ability to grasp aesthetic sensibility and concrete production possibilities - without forgetting that it is precisely the unexpected perspectives emerging from distant and diverse worlds that redefine the very notion of “modernity”. East and West, the introduction of traditional materials alongside a renewed relationship with nature, where the focus is not only on the object itself but on how people engage with it. Thus emerges Komorebi ( 木漏れ日), a Japanese term that cannot be directly translated, describing the sunlight filtering through tree leaves, creating a constantly shifting interplay of light and shadow. It takes the form of a kind of shelter - protective yet open to dialogue with nature. Light filters through it and, in the background - though different in construction and volume - one might sense a distant echo of Le Corbusier’s Cabanon. A unique work, deeply rooted in the culture of the modern movement, yet equally engaged in the search for a private, intimate space. Materials such as aluminium, canvas, natural fibres and acrylics render this “open hut” light, almost immaterial. Its use is adaptable - suited to indoor or outdoor environments, convivial or solitary, silent yet open to interaction. All this suggests that being contemporary today means engaging with as many cultural and design experiences as possible, because the world is already within our homes. For this reason, we must engage with future designers and raise our gaze beyond our own “garden”. It is through the perspectives of others that we come to better understand what it means to design today.

Aldo Colonnetti