The visit of Ambiente in Frankfurt, one of the most important fairs in the world in the home accessories sector – over 300,000 square meters divided into 3 macro areas: living, dining and giving (gift ideas) – was an opportunity to reflect on some of our time.

The first perception you have – of course, there was no need to go to the fair, but you really hit your head there – is that we live in a society that produces beyond any concept of necessary and useful, both in quantitative terms and in terms of offer declination .

Anyone can easily refute this claim by claiming that there is freedom of enterprise, the freedom to create anything, to produce what you want. We agree, in principle, but when you see the results an atrocious doubt creeps within you, the doubt that we are building our end, with a smile, with color, with the unsustainable lightness of infinite production.

The second perception is that we do not have the slightest awareness of the state of things present and continue to churn out objects absolutely incompatible with the material sustainability of planet Earth. And this, also wanting to neglect ugliness, yes we feel free to express a value judgment, of most of the things we have seen.

Here too we would be easily refuted, we will be reminded of the famous Latin saying: “De gustobus is not disputandum”. But is it really so? In part yes, of course, it is true that each of us has its own aesthetic sensitivity, and this is beautiful, it is the richness of diversity.

This is fine with us, we can only share it, of course. However, we want to shift the focus of the reasoning on the actual tools we have to express a conscious judgment, without all those subtle unconscious conditionings, to which we are subjected, I would say bombed, 24 h.

So what is the point of having dozens of stands that offer us thousands of water bottles – an excellent solution not to buy disposable bottles – and then, in the pavilion next to it, as many stands displaying thousands of plastic objects?

We want to be clear on the merits of what is written, so that it is not perceived as a criticism of the Frankfurt fair, which remains an excellent fair, however impeccably organized, from many points of view. As well as we respect all those entrepreneurs – we are too – who invest resources to be present, to tell their world, their products, their ideas.

We would like to see a step forward, in the future, we would like to perceive a greater awareness about the need to change perspective, the game scheme, the genetic culture of the products.

It will not be a joke to unhinge logics that have been the basis of our society for almost a century, but if today design has a challenge, this is the challenge: to unhinge the present in a disruptive way to reconfigure a different, more human, the only future possible.

Will all this be enough? No, if each of us will not change our lifestyle.