Vietnamese students become the main audience of the Italian Design Day, the annual event held in the Southeast Asian country for the sixth consecutive year, for the fact that they will make Italy’s expertise fully exercised.

Ambassador of Italy to Vietnam Antonio Alessandro at the press conference in Hanoi on Mar 23. Photos: Embassy of Italy in Hanoi

Students are the key force in Vietnam’s population (the country with a larger percentage of people in younger age groups compared to Italy), who are actively turning Italian design knowledge into reality, according to Ambassador of Italy to Vietnam Antonio Alessandro.

The idea was raised ahead of the Italian Design Day which will be held from March 25 to March 27 in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with a series of workshops, exhibitions, and movie screenings.

Students are those who are easy and willing to learn new things while the design is set to innovate and drive improvement. For that reason, design generates a creative approach that enables students to understand the context of the design and bring ideas to life, Ambassador Alessandro shared with The Hanoi Times.

As such, students are the future of a nation and design is for the future. In this regard, the way they learn, imagine, convey the message truly it is, and make it practical, the ambassador said, adding that it’s part of the ways to share Italian experiences in this field.

For the past years, the Embassy of Italy in Hanoi has partnered with the National University of Civil Engineering (NUCA) in disseminating the Italian Design Day. The partnership helps make the Italian design ideas widely spread among professional stakeholders and students are among them.

Italian Design Day

The Italian Design Day, launched in 2017 by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, is held in more than 100 cities around the world. Its main purpose is to promote the history and modernity of Italian design, share experiences and ideas with partners worldwide and encourage the exchange of innovative practices and international cooperation.

Vietnam joined the Italian Design Day in 2017. This year’s edition includes a hybrid conference held in NUCA with the attendance of Ambassador of Italy to Vietnam Antonio Alessandro; Italian Design Ambassador in Vietnam for 2022 Marco Lambri, Design Director of Piaggio; UNESCO Representative to Vietnam Christian Manhart; and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Duy Hoa, NUCE rector.

This year’s theme “Re-Generation: Design and new technologies for a sustainable future” are of great importance for our times as design can help reinvent the habitat and mobility of our cities by combining innovation and culture, technology, and sustainability.

Famous Italian architect Marco Casamonti, in his visit to Vietnam in 2020 stressed the importance of innovation and sustainability in the design industry. He argued that the two factors are human needs. Architects, designers, and the general public need to work together towards a common goal of creating community-oriented environments. From his perspective, sustainability is not an abstract concept but a pressing issue in the context that the world is overpopulated and the natural resources are depleted.

The Italian Design Day 2022 in Vietnam.

Meaning for Vietnam

To tap the Italian expertise, alongside workshops and projects, famous Italian architects have visited Vietnam to support the Vietnamese partners and boost the cooperation in this field. They were ambassadors of the Italian Design Day for the years 2019, 2020, and 2021.

In 2019, architect and designer Michele De Lucchi, one of the greatest representatives of Italian design of the last few decades, came to Vietnam. He had some works with the University of Industrial Fine Arts in Hanoi and some agencies in Ho Chi Minh City where he presented his latest inspirational architectures and the future trends by sharing about architecture in an open event co-organized by the Consulate General of Italy in HCMC and Eurasia Concept, for an audience of students, academia, media, entrepreneurs in the construction sector. Michele De Lucchi is the designer of inspiring architectures like the Bridge of Peace in Tbilisi, Georgia, the Pavillion Zero at Expo Milan 2015, or iconic objects like the Tolomeo lamp or the Pulcina coffee maker.

The year 2020 marked the visit by Prof. Arch. Marco Casamonti is regarded as a super architect in the design industry, pride of Italy and Florence – his hometown. Marco Casamonti, the co-founder of ARCHEA Associati, one of the world’s leading architectural design companies, said Vietnam and Italy have something in common namely unique cultural traditions, craftsmanship, and the ability to turn raw materials into building materials and objects by hand. In addition, the spirit of creativity and inquisitiveness is deep down there among the two peoples. According to him, creativity has always been in Italy’s DNA.

In Vietnam, Marco Casamonti is the author of Kiss Bridge in Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam’s biggest island and one of the most famous tourist attractions.  

In 2021, Massimo Roj, one of the most famous architects in Italy, took a tour to Vietnam. The author of Expo Milan 2015 connected professionals, academics, and students in different cities of Italy and Vietnam. He, who is co-founder of Milan-based integrated design firm Progetto CMR, presented architecture and sustainability in urban regeneration – two concepts he has actively championed for more than three decades now.

Ambassador Alessandro said Italian design is one of the aspects of the bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and Italy. It’s included in the academic curricula and in academic exchange programs which help spread the Italian expertise in the country and its relevance for Vietnam.

In addition, Italian design expertise is meaningful for Hanoi after it was designated a Creative City in 2019 by UNESCO. Over the past years, Hanoi is home to a series of events and projects shared by Italian experts in the design industry. It’s helpful for the city’s vision of the leading creative hub of Southeast Asia. Currently, Hanoi is listed in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) that covers seven creative fields: Crafts and Folk Arts, Media Arts, Film, Design, Gastronomy, Literature, and Music.