Introduction (Claudio GAMBARDELLA)

The opening in the near future of the Temporary Business Museum in Pompeii, centre of the project “Regional Museum System of Design and Applied Arts – Officiamuseumed”, marks a historic step for future development opportunities for those companies operating in the production of excellence in Campania. It is also the start of a decisive phase in the construction of design that is closely linked with local crafts – Filippo Alison and Renato De Fusco in the 1990s called it artidesign – with it being closer to the radical transformations, and not just economic, of our time. It is this very aspect that extends the geographic and cultural boundaries of the “System”, proposing the hypothesis of a Mediterranean Museum System of Design and Applied Arts – Officiamuseumed, with it being an extension of the system developed for the Campania region, which might be of interest to other Mediterranean countries.

The following contributions will highlight the two conceptual theories of the “System”. Ayşe Özbil illustrates the contribution that can come from Turkey, a pillar of the design culture of the Mediterranean, in the interaction between museums and local crafts. While, Jochen Siegemund, through his work at the University of Cologne in the discipline of Corporate Architecture, defines the system as a modern business strategy tool.
It is not just a strategic project, but also a deeper restructuring of Design, collecting examples that come from a wide scientific subject area, geography and education.

A design that is more suited to this current period of crisis, with it being able to restore the dialogue with the past as well as express a new idea of modernity that no longer based on the certainty of its Growth. A design that knows how to contrast the arrogance of globalization at home, opening up to new productive landscapes, peripheral rather than those of traditional industrial design.