TMX @DesignMashup 2019

It was a great concept that brought together people with diverse design disciplines from around the world to explore new ideas, share experiences and thoughts. The faculties and mentors were well experienced and renowned personnel who have made their mark in the design world. The whole program was designed as a dual channel engine that power up your thoughts and actions shifting your design paradigms

PART I

MILAN - THE DESIGN CAPITAL 

A 3-day Milan tour will consume your visual processing function in full. We visited the Fondazione Prada, Achilles Castiglioni design studio, the last Pietà of Michelangelo, the Base and Mudec which are very exclusive and exquisite design museums and galleries. You will be taken through an immersive experience which will help you see the unseen details, hidden in the depths of chisel works and brush strokes. There are endless dimensions of meaning hidden in most of medieval and renaissance archetypes spread all over Milan. Art and Design are deeply rooted in this city, also loved its culture, food and history.

PART II 

CIVITA DI BAGNOREGIO

After the Milan edition, we took a 7-hour scenic route train journey to Orvieto and an hour by road to Bagnoregio village where we halted at a hilltop observatory. Approximately 1 km from there, is the magical sky castle, Civita di Bagnoregio

A 600m footbridge is the only way to reach Civita and its ten residents.

The view of Civita from the observation point was overwhelming. My eyes could not process the scale, my brain got tricked into believing that it was a wallpaper and my mind was stuck in a storm of thoughts. Civita was founded by the Etruscans more than 2500 years ago. The city still holds the remains of Etruscan, Medieval, Roman and the Renaissance period architecture.

There are only ten inhabitants in Civita and no automobiles or modern age facilities up on the hill city. The one link that connects Civita with the outside world is a foot bridge which is approximately 600 meters long and is the only way to commute to the city and out. It is also known as “the Dying City” since it is in constant danger of destruction as the edges of the plateau collapse due to erosion, leaving the buildings to crumble as their underlying support falls away.

The Design Mashup team stayed in Civita for 7 days, exploring thousands of years old, archaic remains of different ages. We were also in a mission to enhance the experience of tourists that visit the city, explore ways to educate people about the significance of the place, testing the feasibility of conducting global events and art exhibitions in the city without losing its soul and character. It was a total contrast of what we experienced in Milan, but a perfect blend for this program since it helped us understand the nuances of ancient and modern age design architecture. We did a full scale ethnographic research, patternized the data, sketched and modeled our recommendations and demonstrated to the Bagnoregio city council members and natives of Civita. The results were widely appreciated and as a result the next edition of design mashup will be conducted only in Civita, inviting top makers and thinkers from all over the world.

Personally, it was a transformation journey for me where I learned “how to see”, a skill that is inevitable in designing a better world for generations to come. And begins by seeing yourself.