Before the round table organised alongside the exhibition Discover Design. The von Vegesack Collection we met the designer Ingo Maurer, who has been designing light with wonderful poetry for forty years, invited, together with the collector Alexander von Vegesack and the historian Mathias Schwartz-Clauss, to talk about design from the point of view of those who have the task of giving shape to a personal vision of the world through their work.

Q. What shape has the reality that you want to mould in your projects?

A. Emotions interest me more than shape. So I would say that my design intent is to create spaces where people can feel happy with light. It is very important that my lights do not merely illuminate but also communicate positive energy to other people: I never forget the emotional dimension that can come from light in my designs, even if this is not the only reason for my work.

A. No. I own a few items, for example a table like this (a lacquered wood table, Gerrit T. Rietveld 1934, ndr), that I found at the Marché aux Puces and I feel admiration for the work of other designers but I have no need to possess them. I don't like the idea of owning, of ownership in general, and a beautiful object can be enjoyed just be seeing it. Nonetheless, I think that collections in the various sectors are important to build a critical history and keep its memory alive.

Q. In his work as director of the Vitra Design Museum, Alexander von Vegesack has discovered many new talents. You often work with young people to help to make them known by the public. What do you think of the new generations?

A. There are some very promising young people but it is difficult to find anything really new. There are so many designers working "à la" manner of someone else and express nothing innovative. At the last edition of the Salone del Mobile of Milan I sponsored the work of Molo Design Vancouver and Arcstream Barcelona because their extraordinary originality and creative force struck me. I would like to devote myself more to this research and promotion of young talents but I don't have the time to do it continuously.

Q. In your case, was there someone who helped you to emerge?

A. No. It was a natural development that took me from graphics to the design of lamps. And in part chance.

Q. Talking of chance, "Per caso" is the name of one of the lamps in your latest collection precisely because it emerged while designing a table whose edge is bordered by coloured rubber, the same material that constitutes the structure of the lamp. How much does chance count in your designs?

A. The starting point is a sort of intuition that is usually generated when I am working on a design. Each lamp is, therefore, in the end, the result of a very precise logical and functional process. Chance counts very little in this.

Q. Design-art, the one-off and semi-craft pieces, half-way between art and design, seem to be the new trend in the sector. What do you think of this? Is this a valid contamination?

A. My opinion is that one tends to over-analyse nowadays, forgetting that there is always an intuition underlying the creative process, which is very difficult and, at times, limiting to classify within precise categories.

Q. Another trend, or to put it better a very contemporary need, as you do not like to label design, is sustainability. Do you bear this in mind in your designs?

A. It is important to take it into account studying and applying new technologies that have a low environmental impact and enable energy. I have been using LEDs for some time (the prototype of the Bellissima Brutta light dates back to 1997, ndr) and I am also experimenting innovative technology based on OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diode, ndr). Before putting the old incandescent lamps in the attic, however, there is still a lot of work to do, because the effect of warm light is difficult to achieve with other systems: it was a real shock for me when I found out that incandescent bulbs would be banned in Australia by 2010!

(di Lucia Panozzo)