WELCOME TO THE DESALL BLOG. THIS POST IS PART OF THE “COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT” SERIES WHERE WE INTERVIEW THE BEST MEMBERS OF OUR CREATIVE COMMUNITY. THANKS FOR READING!

DONATO SANTORO is a senior architect and winner of Barilla’s food design competition and Ermetika’s product design contest. Donato began his career under the supervision of the famous design master Ettore Sottsass. In this interview, he talks about an important lesson he learned during his internship and his pursuit of sustainable interior design. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Hi Donato, it’s great to have you here today. Can you briefly introduce yourself to the community?

Hi, my name is Donato Santoro and I’m a freelance architect based in the province of Milan, Italy.

What is your professional background and current position?
After graduating from Politecnico, I trained at Sottsass Associati and Sawaya & Moroni Architects, two design firms where I worked on interior architecture, furniture design and product design projects. I currently work with several established architecture and design firms in Milan.

Is there a memory or a lesson you took away from your training period?
With Ettore (Sottsass) I learned to hate indecision: You have to face a project immediately with clear ideas and, above all, you must not think about it too much. It’s a bit like saying “good first take”. One hundred per cent of his sketches became executable projects, exactly as he had envisioned them. Today I see designers with confused ideas. They start from a sketch, which then undergoes so many changes that in the end the original idea disappears and becomes something completely different.

What are your future plans as far as your professional and creative career is concerned?

I would like to design seating and tables made entirely of wood.

Can you tell us how this wish came about in relation to your path as an architect?
The title “architect” does not fit me so well. I consider myself more of a designerand craftsman. When I think of architects, I think of the very good ones who build these huge structures. Of course, I have worked on more or less big, more or less important, more or less beautiful projects, but I am more attracted to natural materials and their properties: Glass, stone, metal, wood. When I design a piece of furniture, I like to imagine it as a single material: all stone, all glass, all wood, all metal. Sometimes it happens (due to the client’s know-how) that I have to mix two or more materials, but I always try to keep them separate, or in any case easily separable, because I think of the “after”, the end of an object’s life. I have seen landfills full of plastic and metal chairs just because nobody bothered to separate the seat from the structure so they can be recycled.

You were recently awarded for two of our creative contests, can you tell us about your experience?
The Barilla award came after a long period of research, sleepless nights, rendering and three-dimensional prints. I was very keen on this project and to date it is the one I am most proud of. Back in 1991, what made me choose the faculty of architecture was “pasta”. A Giugiaro project published in a magazine of the time directed me to the faculty of Architecture. I thought: how nice, designers can design practically anything, even pasta. After Barilla came the Ermetika award, unexpectedly like the first, and just like the first, I had worked hard for it.

What’s your advice for being successful in design competitions?
A competition is comparable to a class assignment: you have to read the assignment very carefully so as not to deviate from the topic. A good project must fulfil all or at least most of the requirements demanded by the client and not simply be put into an original form just because you are a good creative.

Recommend a book or resource on design/creativity that you would not want to live without.
The best source of inspiration for a creative is undoubtedly Pinterest.

The designer/architect you admire the most.
For architecture I admire the work of Tadao Ando.
For interior design, John Pawson.
For product design, Nendo.

Where can we find you online?
I’m on Instagram @donato.santoro.architecture.

‘ROUND TRIP’ COFFEE TABLE by DONATO SANTORO for SAWAYA & MORONI (all images kindly provided by the author):

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