This multi-award winner's creative repertoire includes furniture, lighting, tableware … and manhole covers. In Frankfurt, we came face to face with creative multitasker Giulio Iacchetti who considers good design part of his cultural heritage: it must be valued, preserved, developed and – above all – loved.
Many of these "excellent" manufacturing techniques are traditional skills that can be traced back hundreds or even thousands of years. But this doesn't preclude innovation, the designer explains. Iacchetti comes from Cremona in Lombardy, a city known for violin making; top of his creative agenda is the design of modern instruments, "based on old knowledge and new challenges. Traditions haven't always been old. And progress, development and improvements are always possible. Indeed, they are often influenced by experience. Today's designers need to engage more in dialogue with experienced makers." That's just what he did when designing the 'Radica Chic' pipe for Savinelli. The result was a pipe to suit Iacchetti, an occasional smoker, and modern men in general. It is a self-standing table pipe that is easy to use while drawing or working at the computer. Here the firm's 140 years of tradition meet present-day innovation.