NEW PROJECTS FOR ANCIENT TRADITIONS

Introduction
For thousands of years men have satisfied their material needs using local products, thus giving way to a precious symbiosis between the natural and the artificial landscapes. With the industrial revolution first, and globalization later, this relationship has weakened, also to meet the growing needs of the population, often with an inconsistent outcome. In order to give value and especially a meaning to designs using local natural building materials, companies from the marble, stone, and related mining industries of Confindustria Bergamo organized a competition for design ideas, open to high school students from the province of Bergamo. The competition requires designing a street furniture item using mainly, and in a characterizing way, natural local building materials.

Subject
Design of a street furniture item, particularly an outdoor seat, including multipurpose designs. The item must be contextualized in the old town center of any small municipality of the Bergamo area. The key element of the project must be a natural building material among those included in the “materials catalog” which will be provided to participants, integrated with other materials (for example, resins, metals, wood, etc) or products (like lighting elements).
The street furniture item should be suitable for industriali production at sustainable costs.

Participation
The competition is open, upon invitation, to senior students of secondary schools in the province of Bergamo.
Individuals or groups may participate.
The competition is open to new projects and therefore excludes industrially produced products or projects that have been submitted to other competitions.

SELECTED PROJECTS