Paola Navone

Paola Navone’s eclectic approach as a designer is hugely influenced by her travels and by different cultures. This Turin-born live wire, who trained in architecture at the Politecnico di Torino, and graduated in 1973, lived in Africa in the 70s, then worked in Asia for over 20 years, notably as a UN and World Bank development consultant for the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Although often inspired by the Far East, Navone finds inspiration everywhere, as she told Be Open’s audience during the Unique and Universal conference. Talking with Daniel Rozensztroch, art director of hip Paris lifestyle store Merci, with whom she has collaborated, Navone summarised her approach as ‘sponge design’. From the moment she wakes up, she said, her ‘brain is like a sponge, absorbing everything’. She also described her eclectic approach as being like ‘a mixed salad’ ­– such that she can’t talk of individual inspirations, only combined ones. Indeed, Navone’s work gleefully jumbles cultures and references, resulting in unexpected hybrid pieces (‘hybrid’ was another word she mentioned in reference to her work at Be Open). For example, for Habitat she once designed kitchen utensils whose shapes are derived from African tribal cooking utensils but made of a high-tech, heat-resistant plastic. The origins of this pick ‘n’ mix approach partly lie in her highly formative experience of working, from the mid-70s, with Milan’s avant-garde, ultra-conceptual design collective, Studio Alchimia, whose members included Alessandro Mendini and Ettore Sottass. This group rebelled against the dry rationalism of the Bauhaus and helped lay the foundations of postmodernism until it dispersed in 1992. Navone’s own work has continued to be experimental although it is also commercially viable.