‘Environments’: A journey into Piero Lissoni's universe of creativity and design

Environments is a comprehensive treatise on the design and creative journey of both Piero Lissoni and Lissoni & Partners. Published by New York-based publication Rizzoli and edited by Italian designer Stefano Casciani, Environments traces a hundred architecture, interior, product design, installation and graphics projects developed over a career spanning almost 40 years.

Commenting on the book release, Lissoni shares “Actually, I didn’t want to make a book but I imagined having to resolve a series of functional problems, such as how to stabilise a table (a book would be perfect), or how to make a base for a vase of flowers, an antique Chinese object or framed photographs. However, while I was at it, I also tried to add some content, the bare minimum. In addition to the mentoring of Stefano Casciani and the texts he wrote, I tried to describe what we are: we are not architects, we are not designers, we are not graphic designers we are a strange mix lying between humanism and maybe a dash of science”.

The title Environments was chosen to reflect the idea of a project that is common to many of those presented as an expression of new visions of the built environment attained through researching and inventing spaces and objects that are particularly mindful of the needs of users, manufacturers and constructors, but which also possess a particular expressive vocation that is close to the world of the plastic and visual arts. The book was designed by Lissoni & Partners and clearly reflects the studio’s signature style, from the choice of packaging to the paper that alternates to differentiate the two inserts: one on product design, embellished with illustrations by Guido Scarabottolo, and another on graphic design.

“Writing and editing this book has been a long journey in the space/time continuum of the work of Piero Lissoni and if, as science argues, space/time is curved or circular, by moving attentively through this construction of cherished pages, at the end we find ourselves returning to its origins: an idea of space, an environment that can be architecture, object, graphics, photographs or words, but which will always be part of a universe of myriad possible experiences and visions, just like in a magical box or a kaleidoscope that always reflect a different image of those who wrote and designed them,” says Stefano Casciani.

The book was made available in major bookstores in Italy on September 19, 2023, and will be available worldwide from October 17, 2023.