Laudani & Romanelli
Marta Laudani and Marco Romanelli, architects, collaborated since 1986 in their associated office in Rome and Milan. They work in the fields of design (among all, for Driade, Montina, Fiam, Oluce, Salviati), interior design (they have been published in the most important Italian and international journals and, in 2004, they participated in the Biennial Exhibition of Architecture in Venice) and exhibit design (in 2002-2003, the exhibition “Gio Ponti:a World” in London at the “Design Museum”, in Rotterdam at the “NaI” and in Milano at the “Triennale”; in 2008, the exhibition “Bruno Munari: vietato l’accesso agli addetti ai lavori”, in Tokyo)). Both flank their design work with intense critical meditation. Among the numerous editorial works one must recall: Gli spazi del cucinare 1928-1957, 1990; Aperto Vetro, 2000. Marco Romanelli was editor of Domus magazine from 1986 to 1994 and of Abitare from 1995 to 2007.
Many are the specificities of the design method that characterizes Marta Laudani and me. Both relational and cultural. The former are highlighted in a relationship of mutual exchange and confrontation that has lasted for 30 years and which is expressed in shared works or in individual works, carried out in the personal offices of Rome and Milan. The second particularity, of a cultural matrix, concerns the continuous attention to the world of thought and history, as a matter of facts for both of us the practical part of design is combined with an intense critical reflection, in architecture and design magazines, in books, monographs or on a specific problem, and above all, through the curating of exhibitions. The belief underlying this attitude is that, quoting Ernesto Nathan Rogers, “even words are building material”. If we wanted to find a “genetic” explanation for such a specificity we could perhaps mention the training of both of us as architects and not as designers and the belief that the best design is always in relation to people’s lives and therefore with inhabited interiors. Then a lamp will remind us of the light coming in from a window, a small armchair will solve the need for autonomy within a family unit, a dish will have enhance even the simplest food presented on it. In short, it is in thinking about interiors, in conceiving interiors that the objects indifferently designed by Marta or by me find their verification and validation before they even appear on the market.