White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 12top of the rankings both for reputationand size-turnover, have taken out manypatents of various kinds, from silkscreen prints on concrete, to structures,and cladding fabrics. The firm’s researchis continuously associated withindustrial production and the idea ofexporting the solution. The stage ofcreation and experimentation does notgenerate a one-off product but is gearedto generating products and resultswhich can be repeated.It would be interesting to conduct aresearch on the number of patentsregistered in Italy. The initial data wehave analysed, however, suggests thatItalian architectural creativity is of acraft kind, associated with the model ofthe individual studio run by an expertpractitioner.There is an undeniable relationshipbetween firm size, investment inresearch and development and thereforeinnovation and competitiveness. Thewidespread Italian model does notencourage the kind of dialogue betweenresearch and the production of newmaterials, building systems andinnovative solutions which in otherEuropean countries has produced alarge number of patents. The Italianmodel cannot be changed in the shortterm but a number of measures can beintroduced to create more favourableconditions and to concentrate energiesin strategic sectors. This can be done bypromoting the creation of andsupporting centres of excellencefocused on research andinterdisciplinary experimentationapplied to the sector and aimed atdeveloping innovative solutions gearedto market requirements. These must beopen structures so that they providesupport for architects designingdemanding complex works and act asreference centres to which firms canturn for specific research requirements.The size of Italian firms makes itdifficult for them to achieve the criticalmass required to compete at global levelin the sector of new constructions. Butthere are fields in which we havedeveloped expertise and have built up apool of knowledge that can make asignificant contribution to globalresearch and innovation. One exampleis the traditional sector of restorationand the innovative field of the relationsbetween the redevelopment of historicalarchitecture and energy savings. Varioussolutions have emerged and can befurther studied and elaborated from thepoint of view of research andcontemporary models.Given the high percentage of youngarchitects working in the country, Italyhas a great potential: 49% of architectsregistered with Inarcassa (the obligatoryarchitects insurance and pension fund)are under 40, and as many as 22,416(which is not far off 27,000, the totalnumber of French architects) or 22%,are under 36. These young architects areonly just setting up in practice, investingenergy, talent and money.A recent competition promoted by theDepartment for Landscape Quality andConservation, Architecture and theContemporary Arts for a selectionworks to be shown at the LondonArchitecture Biennial 2008 attracteddesigns of very high average standard.In just over a month, 170 works weresent in (more of a third had been built)on the theme of sustainability and theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 292