Social Design, Milan 1970s

Giancarlo Pozzi, the TR15 Hospital Bed and the Partnership with Achille Castiglioni and Ernesto Zerbi

Abstract

This article presents a research on Giancarlo Pozzi, Milanese architect and designer, and the partnership with Achille Castiglioni and the traumatologist Ernesto Zerbi to the TR15 hospital bed design. This design experience of a collective use product is contextualized in the Italian design social season of the early 70s, that was characterized by a lively debate on the role of design and the industrial designer social responsibility. Thanks to the analysis of primary sources that have been provided by the Pozzi family and the Achille Castiglioni Foundation, and then crossed with secondary sources, the about 10 years TR15 bed design path has been reconstructed through the programming, conception, experimentation and production phases, until finally the achievement of the Compasso d'Oro prize, in 1979. From the reconstruction of the partnership, one of the few cases in the history of Italian design emerges. This is related to the search for a social model of design capable of making sense of the industrial design by targeting it to the real needs of the users albeit within a market economy system. The project condenses the political value of Italian design of the 70s, and brings out some of the key elements of the debate on the design profession, in an attempt to converge the interests of the industry with the interests of the community: a new way of understanding users and clients, integrated planning as a social process, and the interdisciplinarity necessary to face the complexity of the design.