N. 187 | 2018

Thoughts ... a walk through the city

the special nature of things

we would like to invite you on a stroll through urbino, past a small café on piazza pascoli. a café that is so typical of italy. a space that is actually far too small for the masses of people sipping their hot espresso there, discussing animatedly and sometimes gesticulating wildly. the characteristics of the place: cramped and noisy. not exactly terms that first come to mind when describing a pleasant place. and yet there is this unique atmosphere in the café, which is characterized precisely by the factors mentioned. the small café is seen as a symbol of italian joie de vivre, as something "special". a specialness that has the ability to trigger a feeling or a certain mood in us. but what is this specialness? what makes it special? why do we perceive places, situations and things as special? there must therefore be factors that are able to create the framework conditions that allow special situations to arise, or even trigger them. factors that ensure that a certain atmosphere prevails in a certain place. in many places, these factors are still hidden, they need to be identified and localized. we want to get to the bottom of these factors, look for what is hidden, bring it to light and add it to a new whole. together with you, our aim is to create a place that will be remembered as a special place.

object and place

the effect of the object is closely linked to the place where it is found. let's think back to the small café. would we remember this café in the same way if it were not located directly on the piazza pascoli, in the shadow of the mighty cathedral and the palazzo ducale? would we not perceive the café's narrowness, which in this case is to be seen as a quality, as being so "narrow" if it weren't for this huge leap in scale? wouldn't the whole quality of the café be lost by taking away the context, the majestic buildings, the numerous locals, the hustle and bustle? or, conversely, what quality would the piazza have without this café? would it not also lose a considerable part of its quality if there were no place to linger? it can therefore be said that there must be a reciprocal relationship between the object on the one hand and the specific place on the other. a fundamental and original question arises: does the object change the perception of the place or does the place stage the object? there will probably be no clear answer to this question, but in the best case the clear demarcation between the perception of object and place becomes blurred and a new whole emerges.

the power of memory

let's stay at the little café for a moment. some time has passed since our visit
some time has passed since our visit, but the smell of the freshly ground coffee is still present. the stools, worn, but with their very special charm for that very reason. the dark, almost black wood on the walls, which intensifies the narrowness of the room many times over.
and the old lamps that stage the visitors like stage lighting. memories that immediately take you back to the situation at the time, but also memories that are not objective images. it is individual aspects, fragments that characterize them, particularly impressive things or moments. memories whose power arises precisely from this fragmentary nature. there is a romanticization of the events, combined with a focus on the formative aspects and at the same time an abstraction of these. against this background, memories are far more than simply thinking back to the past. they have the potential to relate the present to the past and to trigger feelings as a starting point for associations. feelings that are multi-layered, fed by the past and supported by a new interpretation of it.

association and symbolism

as described above, associations are inevitably linked to memories. at the beginning of his series of novels "in search of lost time", marcel proust describes the moment when a young man dipped a piece of pastry into his coffee on a cold winter's day in france, which immediately took him back to his childhood. memories of his sheltered childhood, the village where he grew up, his aunts and the madelaines he always ate for breakfast. the memory was triggered by an analogy, a similarity between the pieces of pastry. our daily lives are characterized by analogies and associations. we constantly encounter things that remind us of the past. associations are strongly dependent on experiences and memories, but also on the cultural context, the social framework, the history and the places in which we find ourselves. with this knowledge, we see the use of analogies and symbols as an opportunity to design objects that evoke associations. objects whose atmospheric richness is additionally supported by the power of memory and which interpret, reinterpret and rewrite the context, the use and the place with its history in such a way that, in the best case, they themselves become a symbol.

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