Å TEDLJIVA GRADNJA - DalCasa

Interviewtiative by myself in order to create a professional institutionauthorized in passing on knowledge about design,raise consciousness of entrepreneurs and of generalpublic about the importance of design and its use ineveryday business. For more than two years we havebeen suggesting to include in this project the economicaland state institutions, but, unfortunately, we are stillnegotiating.The Design Centre is a professional institution that conveysthe recent knowledge about the use of design, indirectlyconnects professional designers with companies,enforces gallery exhibitions, education programs, researchwork, promotion and operative management.Although the importance of the Croatian Design Centreand of the design itself is unquestionable, what givesyou the impression that economical and political entitiesare not interested and do not have enough sense foractual questions concerning this profession?Back in 2004 we launched a pilot-project “Design forviable development” which tried to create a mechanismof cooperation between industrial designers andfurniture manufacturers as well as tradesman. With thisproject we achieved very good cooperation with theMinistry of Agriculture, Forestry and Waters which hiredus to create a Study for the Implementation of Design inWood and Timber Industry. Croatia is rich in timber, ownscertain technology and has a large number of manufacturers.This all together creates big potential for theimplementation of design. HDC (Croatian Design Centre)conducted the first research about the conditions ofusing design in wood and timber industry. Based on thiswe created a whole system of projects that interconnectand on a long-term basis they work on education,implementation and evaluation of design in wood andtimber industry. The Ministry of Economics engaged usto create a designing program for the entire economy,which we also did. All of this speaks on behalf of thefact that there is a certain interest and the consciousnessabout the implementation of design is slowly rising.But in order to fully enforce our projects it is necessaryto ensure the infrastructure, space and an overhead forthe Croatian Design Centre.30Can you grade the current condition of Croatian designin relation to the rest of the world and in relation to theeconomical activities in the country?The state of design is connected to the state of the economy.The transition from public to private ownership didnot include industrial design, but only visual communicationsin marketing. There is no tradition or culture ofdesign in Croatia, it is just to be developed by Governmentmeasures orientated on design. While in Croatiathere isn’t even a traditional approach to design, in therest of world itis already beingused on aninterdisciplinarylevel, especiallythe strategicaspect of it.Croatia is alreadyruled byforeign producttrade. We aresimply a marketwhere there isno productionand no productswith additionalvalue.The design ofeach countrydid not developautomatically, butonly with longtermgovernment orientationon the programfor design developmentand cooperation withdesign institutions. Themarket is saturatedand it is no longer aproblem how to producesomething, butwhat to produce sodesign in the worldis no longer just oneof the marke t i n gt o o l s ,but itse q u a lp a r t n e r .Croatian economycannotjust live on sellingproductson its ownmarket, it