Giovanni Sacchi and the Shared Project

Abstract

Giovanni Sacchi, the most famous model maker in the field of industrial design, was awarded the Compasso d’Oro for Lifetime Achievement on April 18th, 1998. The recommendation was advanced by professionals he had worked with throughout his fifty years career. First and foremost by Piero Polato – author of the only monograph dedicated to his work (1991) – and Gianni Arduini, who wrote the following in the letter of introduction for the nomination: “The history of Italian design – fortunately, some might say – was not shaped by designers alone, or by manufacturers or people who have written or spoken about design, but also by those who made it possible to give real physical form to design. The greatest contribution in this sense was undoubtedly made by Giovanni Sacchi”. His recommendation was also supported by Italo Lupi, Paolo Viti, Renzo Piano, Mario Botta, Carlo Ulrico Hoepli, Ernesto Gismondi, Gae Aulenti and Francesco Trabucco. The latter explained his contribution in the following words: “Sacchi can read more into our drawings than what simply appears in the lines we have drafted; he does not merely execute, more often than not he offers a critical interpretation of our work”. This paper intends to explore the experience of Sacchi’s atelier, relying on first-hand accounts to reconstruct the value and many meanings that the model and model-maker bring to the design process, as well as the importance of the personal relationships that have long characterized and distinguished Italian design.