gioacchino acampora
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If glasses had wheels…he would probably design them.
Today I have the privilege of sharing a nice chat with a man who lives design from inside and outside each and every day. Giacchino Acampora has the composure of a CEO, but at the same time he is that kind of person able to brake the mold and get out od rules, with no loss of authoritativeness. I bet he could reply to a formal email, with a long string of emoticons. The company he’s on the head is the Carrozzeria Castagna di Milano, a place where design is a matter since 1849. At that time the Carozzeria used to make carriages for the european royal families, nowadays they mostly work on highend tuning, as for example on Maserati, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo etc. Gioacchino has a very good eye in recognizing peculiar objects, he is so used to customize his clients cars, that when he came to my shop and he saw a pair of sunglasses designed by Cesare Cunaccia , he said to me ” Alessandro, I’m gonna get these, but in the meantime, please let make another pair only for me, made of buffalo horn and with my name engraved”.
- Since your studies at the University, you never stopped working around design. In your job, design is strictly related to the function of the cars you create. Same thing happens with eyewear, function and design go together. What does your love for cars, have in common with the love for glasses?
Style is the answer. This is what my cars and the glasses I love have in common. To better understand this, let me tell you that design is not the same thing as style. If it was design, I would mention complicated mathematicals paradigms and you were probably talking to Giorgetto Giugiaro. In my work I feel more like a stylist than like a designer. A pair of glasses are made essentially of style. Glasses are the most important fashion accessory, they responf to fashion needs and to the mood. They are a very small item, but at same time there’s so much research in the eyewear industry. They’re an object with richness in detail and a line. Such features of proportions, are typical also on our cars.
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- Customization and uniqueness of the product are definitions that bring us immediately to the world of luxury and so to a very selected audience of customers. Do you think it’s possible to get more people to love and buy stylish products? How?
It’s very easy, in fact this is what we are doing right now. We call it digitalization of the creative process. New technologies make it possible to produce in an easier way. We use control centers, 3D printers and cutting tables. So it’s possible to create small series of items for which once you would have needed a mould. So today we use a technology born to make prototypes, for the final production.
- I’ve had a look to your most recent projects. There are futuristic city cars. You are like an ambassador of modernity with strong roots in tradition. What is the interpretation , under a modern vision, of a trip to Venice by an architect with your know how?
Venice is with no doubt a city full of culture and traditions. From my point of view it’s a gathering venue. Such meetings are constantly upated by the changing of times. I think Venice is an example for modernity. When I come to Venice I breathe the future.
- You also do big research in the gastronomy . What is the most exiting discover you have recently made in this field?
Talking about my experiments, I would say 3D Kitchen , digital cuisine. An experimentation, where natural ingredients are handled, decomposed and composed again. In any case I am also fashinated by some venitian hosts, they are able to create literally miracles of taste. Just to mention two , Codroma and his legendary meatballs and Nono Colussi the best venetian facaccia .
- You wear a pair of sunglasses in style of the 50s by Cesare Cunaccia and a pair of ISSON Theodore by Catherine Federici. Two very different styles. What do you like of each of them?
I like the lightness of the glasses by Cesare, they have a timeless style and they make a face very expressive. Same thing happens with the Isson, but as they are thicker I use them when I need protection from the outer world.
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Thank you Gioacchino, hope to see you in Venice. There’s a coktail party on the Grand canal Next week, so we can talk about good wine.