Aldo Cingolani, CEO of New Crazy Colors and Bertone Design, in an interview with Paolo Scagliola for Homes Estates, revisited the milestones of design history and reflected on the relationship between design and luxury.
Architect Cingolani, you have experienced the history of Italian design from the 1980s to today, first as General Manager of Giugiaro Design, then as co-founder and president of Bertone Design, and recently as president of New Crazy Colors. How has the world of design changed over this long period?
I would say it has been a long and triumphant journey. During the early years of my career, in a large international company like Giugiaro, the emerging markets of reference were Japan and Korea. In the Far East, the first products began to develop, enriched by design with significant added value, although initially, this concept mainly concerned the world of electronics, radios, and televisions, and later telephones. Gradually, companies began to understand that to increase the value of their products, they needed to adopt new shapes, new lines, and new concepts. At the time, however, the concept of design was primarily aimed at luxury products or, in any case, at a decidedly high-end market. Everything changed in the 1990s when new markets, particularly China, began to emerge. At that time, China’s economy was still largely based on agriculture and the conversion of post-war factories, so it was a gradual movement, initially involving motorcycles and eventually cars, through a long and rather troubled path. A second revolution came at the end of the 1990s. During those years, even the way of designing underwent an epochal change with the advent of computer graphics. One after another, large companies introduced computer-aided design, which led to a significant acceleration in the design process. Naturally, this transition was not painless for creatives. The rapid adaptation was experienced as a moment of great difficulty for industry professionals. Accustomed to hand-drawn and colored designs using various techniques, they feared losing their creativity, sacrificed on the altar of modernity. New markets and new technologies. These were the major changes that have revolutionized design over the past thirty years.
Today, what best interprets the concept of “luxury” from a design perspective?
We are projected into a future where the concept of luxury has changed significantly compared to the 1990s. Today, luxury is defined by the comfort and eco-sustainability of the materials used to conceive and produce a new product. Sustainability has become a must: if once the focus was mainly on ultra-light materials like carbon and titanium, today the priority is environmental respect and nature conservation in all its forms. Personally, I don’t like the term “luxury” very much; I consider it outdated. I would rather speak of an “excellent product.” If by “luxury” we mean the use of exclusive materials, such as a very rare leather, then we are in another field, that of seeking the most expensive material.
Speaking of architecture, how do you envision the house of the future?
“The world is changing rapidly, and with it, our very idea of housing must change. The house will increasingly become a multifunctional place where we will spend more and more of our time. Smart working is now a well-established reality even in Italy, and young people will need more space for distance learning. If it becomes increasingly difficult to frequent public places like gyms, then we will somehow need to compensate for these needs in domestic spaces. The house must be designed and furnished with a completely different logic of use and no longer just as a place to eat and sleep. It must be enriched with solutions that make it adaptable and flexible. The living room must transform into a study, the children’s room must have a space for school activities. The development of a technological system that allows all these things will be crucial. I imagine television screens transforming into computer screens, but also open spaces where wall-mounted sports equipment can be installed to allow us to exercise without having to go outside.” We are talking, therefore, about a house conceived as a living module completely different from today’s. The Coronavirus health emergency has accelerated this transformation and will increasingly modify the architecture and spaces of the places where we live and work. In short, a future that has already begun…
Remaining in the field of architecture, how important is it to rely on high-level brands? And how does this choice affect the value of the property?
There is no doubt that anything branded exerts great appeal at the time of purchase. Just as in fashion, the brand guarantees quality. And in the real estate world, this rule holds even more value because it provides a sort of “certification” that lasts over time. We can say that, at the time of resale, under equal market conditions, a branded property will be worth at least 10-15% more than a property without signatures. A difference that is mainly explained by the reassurance provided to the buyer. It is obvious that if a company offers its brand, it demands an extremely high-quality standard from all the workforce involved – from builders to decorators to installers. And it is precisely this certification that gives the property a higher market value.
Aldo Cingolani
Architect, in 1995 you joined the Giugiaro Group, becoming Commercial Director of Giugiaro Design Spa after two years. A speaker at international conferences, in 2013 he co-founded Bertone Design, where he assumed the role of CEO. In 2015, he joined the Directory Board of FON University in Skopje, initiating the Bertone Design Academy project. The Poli.Design of Milan includes him in the Club of 87 Great Alumni who bring to life the educational project “Towards 2099.”
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