Dodging irrelevance

Ross Lovegrove.
[More Images]

That’s a good question. I’ve kept pace with the potential of how you create, meaning that I’m somebody who was taught geometry with a compass and then I did all my ink drawings; I draw beautifully and I can illustrate and visualise – I can do all of that. And now that’s all gone through and we’re embracing the age of the computer, with amazing programmes and things to visualise with. That’s the feat that everybody was faced with. And your average kid from Vladivostok with a computer can do that now.

So, what is it that you are offering that nobody else can offer? I think it’s a philosophy. I’ve been around long enough, I think, to try and establish a very strong and relevant philosophy, and to know how to work with companies.

I am somebody who can, in a mature way, be solidly behind certain ideas. I like to work with people and feel as if I’m not a one-night stand and they’re not a one-night stand. You’ve got to develop with people – and everyone benefits. That was the old model.

The new model seems to be that you can pick up anybody and pay them nothing and get them to design for you. And that’s fine but you wouldn’t want to buy art that way, would you?

Do you think that the design industry is suffering as a result?

Well, there’s a bit too much of everything these days. But everything happens naturally, so if there is too much design, there is a reason for it. So many more people are buying more design, so maybe there’s a need for that.

There’s certainly been a massive transformation in the way people live and in the quality of things around us.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

I haven’t seen much of it, to be honest. Everything is new so it’s a little bizarre. It can feel really soulless. It sometimes doesn’t feel natural to me.

I’m interested in contributing to countries, as a kind of cultural translator. Often when I go to new places, I think: ‘What could I bring, what could I do?’ And I’m not particularly interested in designing a skyscraper. I could do it, but just because it’s big, it doesn’t mean it’s important.

Maybe because there is an enlightened wealth here, I know people have come to these places as creatives to do things that they couldn’t possibly do in other places, because the financial support is there.

They can be extreme – and I like the idea of being extreme. Like I was talking about building this incredible bubble, or this amazing organic villa, out of carbon or something. You could do it here if there was somebody wealthy enough to say, ‘Why not?’. That doesn’t happen in other parts of the world. I don’t mean to sound so direct but that’s the way it is. You need the patronage. To do extraordinary things, you need extraordinary people and extraordinary belief.

So, the thing is, if you take this region, it should be a region of firsts. Because they have the financial power, they should be accessing really incredible, vital ideas. The solar trees that I designed for Artemide, for example, they should be everywhere.

They are a symbol of modernity and the environment and giving something back to people, as well as functioning in a really important way. These are the things you should see. You should see incredible vehicles that respond to the heat. We have a global condition where the world is heating up, and they should use this as a test bed.

This is a place in the world that is fighting against nature to survive – and it’s taking incredible resources to do that. So this is a time to use the resources wisely and to prototype new ideas for living.