ADI Compasso d’Oro: the winners of the seventieth edition

2 July 2024

In 1954 it was Gio Ponti who had the idea of ​​establishing an award giving it the name of Compasso d’oro, not only for the prestige of this metal but also “because it refers to the compass used by sculptors to define the proportions based on the rules of ‘golden harmony’ as Luciano Galimberti, president of ADI, recalls.

Generations of designers have always been inspired by this ideal of harmony, as Galimberti points out, and even today, when the themes and priorities have changed compared to seventy years ago, harmony is the common thread of all the awarded projects on this occasion.

The seventieth edition was held last June 20th in the square of the museum of the Industrial Design Association which also announced a new international edition of the award which will be held as part of the Italian participation in Expo 2025 in Osaka.

The jury was composed of Maria Cristina Didero, independent author and curator; Luciano Galimberti, designer and president of ADI; Francisco Gómez Paz, designer; Renata Cristina Mazzantini, director of the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of Rome; Toshiyuki Kita, designer and Ambassador of the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka.

Twenty prizes were awarded, in addition to career awards and honorable mentions. There are many design categories involved, from medicine to work, although the heart of the event remains the design of the spaces, including materials, technologies, furnishings and lights.

For the lighting category, the Anima lamp by Davide Groppi was awarded: characterized by the designer’s usual poetics, Anima reduces the structure to the essence to give space only to light and wonder, stimulating the imagination of those who choose it.

In the same category also, the prize goes to Figaroqua Figarolà designed by Paolo Rizzatto and Mario Nanni for Viabizzuno: suspended at the four corners of a room, it allows, with a system of counterweights, to be moved according to the needs of the moment. Among the furnishings, the prize was awarded to the Costume sofa, designed by Stefan Diez and produced by Magis, awarded for its modularity and disassembly which makes it versatile and sustainable.

The Za:Za sofa by studio Zaven for Zanotta was also awarded: imagined starting from the experience of daily use of the sofa, it is made up of only two elements, separable and is comfortable and sustainable.

Now more than ever, an award cannot be missing for outdoor furniture, assigned to the innovative MRX shading system by Marco Acerbis for Talenti: a portal that punctuates the space and, if open, offers a precious and restorative shaded area.

The lifetime achievement awards are also of great interest and significance, intended for significant figures and products in the design panorama. Paola Antonelli, Umberto Cassina, Anna Ferrino, Roberto Gavazzi, Piero Lissoni, Francesca Planeta, Maurizio Riva, Paolo Rizzatto and Roberto Ziliani are the Italian names.

International lifetime achievement awards were given to Japan’s Tadao Ando and Rei Kawakubo.

Also significant are the product career awards, awarded to three projects by Gio Ponti, founding father of the award itself: the Superleggera, designed in 1957 and produced by Cassina, is the iconic seat par excellence and embodies much of Ponti’s approach to design; the Blu Ponti tiles collection, created in 1960 for the Hotel Parco dei Principi in Sorrento and still produced today by Ceramica Francesco De Maio, is an excellent example of the meeting between Ponti and the Mediterranean; finally, the D 154.2 armchair designed in 1953 for a private client and today produced by Molteni & C, was the bearer of innovation in its time and is still extremely current and versatile today.

Related articles