Glass: design and sustainability. A special Make & Talk with Ascanio Zocchi, Federica Biasi and Lanfranco Fontanelli

Examining the present but above all the future of glass, an ancient yet still beguiling material: this was the mission of the latest Make & Talk that took place on 6 October at the Catella Foundation in Milan, as part of Vision Milan Glass Week.

An informal round table on the subject of glass - “invisible yet tangible” as the title of the event says - that brought together designers Ascanio Zocchi and Federica Biasi along with Lanfranco Fontanelli of Biesse. The moderator was journalist Giorgio Tartaro, putting into play his many years of experience in the world of design. And it was precisely his anecdotes that brought the conversation to life, centring on how glass is now going through a stimulating phase not only for those who create products and projects involving the quintessential sustainable material that is glass, but also for those who enable experimentation and new challenges thanks to the use of technology, searching for an ever closer but sustainable link between genial ideas and the machine.

Ascanio Zocchi, design manager of Glass Group and long-standing member of ADI, spoke about the “rediscovery of glass”, a very popular design trend nowadays, especially in the construction field (thinking for example of the hive of activity that is the Milan skyline, where majestic skyscrapers make a modern, imposing statement). For Federica Biasi, a young designer and creative consultant who has just won the international Best Talented Designer 2021 award from Elle Decò, glass is an ongoing challenge. To know it better and be able to glorify it, applying traditional craftsmanship to industrial processes, what's needed is “an approach that's certainly complicated, but at the same time fun”. This is a challenge that inspires technological innovation to exceed the limits time and time again, as highlighted by Lanfranco Fontanelli, Glass, Stone and Advanced Materials Commercial Director with Biesse. In short, a simple job order means a new step forward. Hardware and software, machine and programming, working side by side to simplify and to produce what would once have been unthinkable, allowing today's designers to reinvent objects and structures with creativity with innovation. And not forgetting sustainability - the key word that has become a mantra in every process, whether industrial or otherwise. Glass plays its part too as an endlessly recyclable material, and in fact is soon set to be the star of the show with the United Nations proclaiming 2022 as the International Year of Glass.

Watch the round table on demand whenever you want, on the Digital Arena platform LINK, where you can also see all the previous Make & Talk events.