Garbo and cenacoli of Italian design in the 1960s: A second-order approach to innovation

Abstract

After the Second World War, Italy experienced an economic miracle accompanied by the emergence of a material culture highly dense with meaning. This article adopts a second-order approach, which focuses on two concepts that emphasize the component of invention contained within the innovation process. Garbo indicates the peculiarly Italian way of solving a constrained optimization problem in the design of everyday objects. Meanwhile, the concept of cenacolo – whose etymological roots indicate conviviality and good living – made possible the study of the peculiar social networks of the Milanese cultural landscape during the 1960s, which enabled important cross-fertilizations between industry, culture and art. To demonstrate the connections between invention and garbo and cenacoli, the examples of Olivetti (key player in then-nascent personal computer technology) and Bialetti (producer of the Moka coffee machine) are used as case studies of innovative solutions to constrained problems. Following an outline of elements promoting the success of each, the article identifies historically determined mechanisms, which enable us to imagine and (potentially) establish the evolutionary conditions for new pathways of invention.