Italia, anni venti-novanta. Le plastiche nell’ambito del design. Dalla sostenibilità economica alla sostenibilità ambientale

Abstract

The history of Italian design is inextricably intertwined with the history of plas- tic materials, following a path that originates in the first decades of the 20th century. In relation to the importance that the issue of plastics assumes today in the challenge towards the ecological transition, this essay aims to unfold the path of plastic materials, intercepting some of the changes in the culture of design inherent to the new materiality and the role assumed from the design to guarantee the suitable and correct use of materials. To this end, a rereading of the history of plastic materials in Italy is proposed, focusing on some historical phases and key events for understanding the technological transformations to which the design culture has contributed and responded, modifying the materi- ality of the products, with impacts on the meaning, the use and consumption of materials. From the historical rereading it emerges that, if initially an enthusi- astic and uncritical approach to political choices prevailed in the appropriation of techno-scientific development, after half a century of industrial development and environmental damage due also to the massive, instantaneous and often careless use of synthetic plastics, we have reached in contemporary times to the development of a shared critical approach that removes the ideas of prog- ress and growth from an exclusively economic and quantitative interpretation.