EDIPO

In psychological terms, growing up means facing up to ones parents and becoming autonomous from them. As is well known, it is a long and complicated process. Thus, before taking a look at the "bookcase-system" designed by Nicola De Ponti, marking this you

ng talent's debut at Driade, we must speak about the name chosen for this piece: EDIPO. Nicola's mother is in fact Antonia Astori, probably Italy's leading designer of systems, the lady who, with Oikos in 1972, permanently changed the landscape of interio

r architecture. So this "Edipo" is a homage, an acknowledgement and at the same time a sign of autonomy, of the son in relation to his mother. It is a complex concept, a very distinctive story, but I think it deserves to be told because design is too ofte

n transformed into a system of mute signs, when instead it is actually constructed by people, designers, who are flesh and blood and who live their own specific lives.
EDIPO is still a modular piece of furniture, but it belongs to the new generation. I

ndeed, the time when "modulars" had to create infinite systems of variants is over. Here one works with a single piece: a large square module measuring 109 by 109 centimetres that accommodates square sub-modules on the inside. The non-diversified grid, la

cquered opaque white, is designed to hold "space modulators", or "possibility generators", in other words sub-modules lacquered glossy red that subdivide and specialize the empty space. Furthermore, as well as the variation produced by inserting the submo

dules, the entire bookcase can be turned on each of its four sides, thus modifying, by default, the configuration and progressively making what was horizontal become vertical.