New book 'Il design e il suo doppio' rethinks design as critical tool

Giovanni Innella and Marco Petroni have co-authored 'Il design e il suo doppio', a publication that reframes design as a critical, hybrid field shaped by political, cultural, economic, and symbolic tensions. The book, published by Postmedia Books in 2025 (296 pp., EAN 9788874904242), is structured in three chapters that function as 'analogical spaces'. The first chapter traces Innella's formation at Politecnico di Torino and Design Academy Eindhoven, where his thesis of the same name deconstructed modernist icons. The second chapter presents design as mobile geography, addressing global instability through projects like GeoMerce, Burkina Chair, and 162°C Trading Power. The third chapter returns to Innella's objects—such as the Corredo plates (made between Deruta and Japan) and the Rolling Stones mobile table—as critical instruments. The volume includes contributions from Louise Schowenberg, Justin McGuirk, Silvio Lorusso, Domitilla Dardi, Elena Dellapiana, Craig Bremer, Paul Rodgers, and Mischer'Traxler. The title references Antonin Artaud's 'The Theater and Its Double', framing design's 'double' as its hidden ideological implications and power mechanisms. The book engages with colonialism, capitalism, sustainability, ethics, marginality, and inclusion, calling for a radical rethinking of design practices.