SCOUTING | Lanzavecchia + Wai
Lanzavecchia + Wai by Claudia Barana
Biography. Lanzavecchia + Wai is a creative collaboration between Francesca Lanzavecchia and Hunn Wai. To them, being designers means being researchers, engineers, craftsmen and story-tellers all at the same time. Wai hails from the south-east Asian island state of Singapore, educated as an industrial designer at the National University while Lanzavecchia received her BA in Product Design from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. They began their cooperation at theDesign Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, where both graduated with Masters in Design under the direction of Gijs Bakker, co-founder of Droog Design. Lanzavecchia’s main interest lies in the relationships objects have and can have with the human body and soul as well as having a fervent eye for future trends. Wai is fascinated by the collisions and fusions of materials, meanings and forms. Their cooperation is based on those focuses and having hailed from two very different countries and cultures, they attempt to feed off each other’s backgrounds, knowledge and skill-sets to fuel lateral thinking and agile tangible application. Design projects to them are research journeys characterized by the pursuit and selective employment of different design disciplines and professional competences, to be curated, cross-bred and nurtured into concepts and products that propose possibilities and inspire new perspectives.
Project. SPAZIALE SERIES, 2010. Feminine & masculine, fluid & rigid, lightness & mass, expression & function, tactile pleasure from usage, the Spaziale family would like to invite themselves into your lives and homes, and perhaps have a little fun together. This is a family of domestic creatures that will live with you and your possessions. By breaking out of the rigid mechanical boxes that inhabit in our spaces and store our lives today, they react to what and how much you put in them, openings that behave like mouths and even allow you to hide in them.
Why Design. L+W: From the beginning, we both felt the need of creating and reckoned that product design had preferable qualities compared to architecture; it is not so imposing on human life and is at a “human” scale. And in terms of creative expression we chose design over art because it means that what we produce will be for everybody. Design instead of architecture because is not so imposing on human life and is at a “human” scale.
Workshop. L+W: A studio to us is not a physical space but a mental one, so it could be a kitchen table, a sofa, a bed, and even on the bare minimum of tools and materials like drawing paper, glue, tape, cardboard, chopsticks, metal wire etc and especially an internet connection, as Skype is our virtual window that connects our spaces, thoughts and processes. Naturally as we become more established, we will have a full-fledged working space in either or both continents.
Daytime. L+W: We do not have a typical day per say, but we follow the law of 6 hours time difference between Italy and Singapore. We mainly abide by the European time, which means different studio activities take place on 2 continents concurrently.
Sources. L+W: We live life fully and everything is a source of inspiration.
Voting Material. L+W: Francesca has a fetish for plastic and textiles while Hunn loves to play with wood and metal. However what we are really passionate about are the clashings of our fascinations.
Other’s Design. L+W: Rather than an object, we admire the capability of certain designers who changed their times like the Eames, Munari, Breuer ,Chanel, Sottsass etc
The Bad Master. L+W: Every designer’s story is equal to the next.
Design To You. L+W: Design molds the world in the shape of our dreams.
13.08.2010