Gallery: Plunder

Antonio Scarponi, founder of Conceptual Devices, is an Italian architect and designer currently based in Zürich. Read the full interview with Antonio here.

 

01_A. Scarponi, Malthus. A Meal a Day, 2010.

02_A. Scarponi, Orto Perpetuo, 2014.

03_A.Scarponi, ELIOO 30, 2013.

04_R. De Luca, A. Scarponi, Hotello, 2013.

05_A. Scarponi / Conceptual Devices, Urban Farmers Strategic Design, 2011.

06_A. Scarponi, Malthus. A Meal a Day, Components, 2011.

07_A. Scarponi, ELIOOO, Book Cover, 2013.

08_A. Scarponi / Conceptual Devices, Hedron, 2011.

09_A. Scarponi / Conceptual Devices, Harvesting Station, 2012.

10_A. Scarponi, TANTOOO. A fairy tale bean bag, 2011.

11_A. Scarponi, Readykea (Luther), 2012.

12_ A. Scarponi, Readykea (Catalogue), 2012.

13_ A. Scarponi, Just Undo it, Instruction Drawings, 2010.

14_A. Scarponi, Just Undo It (Computer Sleeve) 2009.

15_ A. Scarponi, Design Narrative Manifesto, 2010.

In Conversation: Antonio Scarponi

Antonio Scarponi, founder of Conceptual Devices, is an Italian architect and designer currently based in Zürich. Last year, he released ELIOOO—a book about how to create your own hydroponic garden with IKEA parts—using a crowd-funded publishing model. With a translator, he recently completed the Japanese version.

Antonio talks to Libby O’Loghlin about the attraction of crowd-funding for publishing, and about architecture as concrete poetry.

Image: screenshot 16.11.2014, Google Image search for Antonio Scarponi

Antonio, you are very hard to fit in a (word) box! You publish books and teach, and you design all manner of things from hotels and other public and private spaces … to clothing and ‘home’ furnishings. If there were a theme running through your work, what would it be?

I am an architect. I do architecture. Architecture today does not mean necessarily a building. I think architecture today is a sort of a geography.

In Conversation: Stefano Massa

The Woolf talks urban narratives and creative concepts with a designer, architect, producer and curator of content.

Stefano Massa. Image courtesy: E. Stassi

“The crowd—I mean the crowd as one of the fundamental figures of modernity—was firstly recognised and understood by writers, philosophers and photographers, not by architects, sociologists or politicians.”

Firstly, let’s talk about you. Architect, designer, creator—what inspires you?

I am an architect, as background, even if I am working and researching also in fields which are not strictly related to the constructive aspect of design. I started this approach early during my studies, completed with the discussion of a thesis in urban design titled Crowd Space. It is a study on the relationship between cities and the crowds that inhabit them. Since then it was clear to me that I was much more interested in the relations occurring between elements of complex and dynamic systems rather than in the mere aesthetic or function of single buildings and design objects.

Speaking of inspiration, basically anything can be inspirational, really any kind of material (visual, textual, acoustic) and very diverse mixes of these ingredients. As I said, I am interested in the