Project G.B. Grattoni Edizione 2016 – Leggere

The relationship between a furnishing accessory and a book was the theme of the 4th Project G. B. Grattoni of 2016.

In the contemporaneity of our daily actions, the term “read” is taking on many facets and inclinations: declinations, shapes, proportions, and colours that seek to provide an effective and efficient response to a plurality of needs that essentially leave the device with which one chooses to access information and content.
Paper and digital have never been so close and at the same time antagonists. There is someone who remain attached to the old devices, the books, which, by the discovery of Johannes Gutenberg (inventor of the mobile printing in 1455) have never ceased to be a point of personal and professional growth and there are those who prefers the immateriality of digital solutions, from ebooks to blogs, from forums to digital newspapers, from webzines to specific social profiles, increasingly protagonists in the act of spreading news.
So how the way of reading change, also the furnishing complements are changing to support this action: no more (or rather, not only) large bookcases and shelves usually fixed in a specific space (such as studios, offices, lounges or living rooms) but smart solutions (in materials, shapes, modularity, anchoring systems, manufacturing and assembly / disassembly processes) that can be moved and positioned in an heterogeneous places, with a great capacity to perform multiple functions and not just to organize and / or storage the volumes.
The 2016 edition therefore asks to designers from all over the world to research and experiment with unusual small and large furnishing accessories that can enhance our relationship and our interaction with one of the most fascinating objects in the world, the book, intended in all its forms, dimensions, manifestations and languages, both online and offline. We will take into consideration the proposals made to improve our daily lives with books, from organization to enhancement, from fruition to storage and interaction, from real to digital. The 4th edition of the G.B.
Grattoni Project was looking for devices to translate one of the most important objects of the last 2000 years into something incredibly contemporary, able to meet the needs of today’s men and women who, depending on their nature, experience and necessity have to be able to access content, information and narratives in different places, with different devices.
One last little advice: start by analyzing your relationship with reading. When and where do you read? How do you read and where (if you do) do you keep what you read? Are the books independent or, depending on the case and context, they interact with the environment and “inhabitants”?