2018_01_31_ARQ_conferencia_alvaro_catalan

The School of Architecture of the University of Navarra hosted last Tuesday, January 23, the lecture "Industrial Craftsmanship" by the designer Álvaro Catalán de Ocón. Students were able to learn first-hand about the designer's most famous projects, including PET Lamp, Cornucopia and Rayuela, among others.

In it, he explained the sense of combining "the pure industrial process with what is produced by craftsmanship". To exemplify this idea, he presented his project PET Lamp, which was born as an action to combat an ecological need: "From the perspective of the industrial design , I wanted to respond to the plastic waste of the Colombian Amazon". And he continued: "Making use of the methodology of design and the labor of artisans".   

The designer wanted to emphasize the importance of storytelling when designing his products: "Theproduct is as important as the message it conveys". With PET Lamp there are two levels of reading: the industrial part, the life of the plastic bottle: where it was manufactured, expiration date, etc.; and the cosmography: the shape and material of the fabric from which it was made, which in turn tells the story of its craftsmen.

Likewise, de Ocón defended the idea of giving more freedom to these artisans in the elaboration of their creations, not giving them guidelines as a designer that could limit the potential and essence of their authors.

On the other hand, he presented other projects such as Riad, Rayuela or Double Game in which he defended the idea of opposing "the perfection of the industry with the imperfection of design"; and the possibility that the Username can "approach and manipulate the product with their own hands".

		See the complete lecture