projects | Viabizzuno progettiamo la luce

the human and professional story of osvaldo borsani, architect, designer and finally entrepreneur since 1953 with his brother fulgenzio, embraces a piece of history of the italian way of life. his experience represents the ‘italian way’. to integrate the arts and disciplines into architecture. together with the great protagonists of the time, osvaldo and his companions have made italy the world’s most fertile physical design platform. borsani develops a history of five generations. in order to highlight the complexity of his work, we were asked to collaborate on the design of a major retrospective, within the triennale muzio, by norman foster and tommaso fantoni. tommaso fantoni writes: ‘together with mario nanni we have given light to this vision of total project that starting from the architecture passes to the product, to the design, to the lighting itself, to the enterprise. i met mario for the first time in the studio few weeks before the installation, but it only took a few minutes to understand each other and a subsequent visit to the space of the triennale to consolidate the project. osvaldo, norman, mario: designers of different generations and complementary areas, united by the very rare quality to be entrepreneurs of their own ideas, always careful to dissolve the barriers between the arts, to push the limit a little further, always inextricably linked to quality and curiositas, the soul of every designer.’ a continuous pale wood splash unfolds all over the ground floor of the triennale curve. the various objects and artefacts are placed in chronological order, determinating a dense, varied pattern of shapes and heights. the architect fantoni and sir foster let the sun enter from the large windows at three metres height. the lensoptica amp composed of micro lenses, developed with david chipperfield architects studio and engineered with arup studio in berlin, combine high efficiency with accurate directional control of the light, allowing it to spread evenly, without causing double glare or shadows, without prevailing, indeed flowing into natural light.