Maurizio Vrenna, Assistant Professor of Design and Director of the Design Innovation and Sustainability Centre at Wenzhou-Kean University: to conceive sustainable industrial design you need a holistic perspective that examines environmental, social, and economic impacts throughout a product's entire lifecycle, not forgetting to provide durability and beauty we never get tired of.
BIOGRAPHY
Maurizio Vrenna is an Assistant Professor of Design and Director of the Design Innovation and Sustainability Centre Director at Wenzhou-Kean University. He holds a PhD in Management, Production, and Design awarded by Politecnico di Torino (Italy). He then studied at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), Tsinghua University (China), and Tongji University (China). During his career as a design scholar, practitioner, and inventor, Maurizio Vrenna developed innovative products and services, working for clients such as Ferrari, Ducati, and Juventus Football Club. He performs advisory services for Climate-KIC, the Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership on climate change. His research interests are sustainable design, product-service system design, and intangible cultural heritage.
He is a board member of AAIIC (Association of Italian Academics in China) and IDA (Italian Design Association), as well as a judge for well-known design prizes, such as the Kapok Design Awards China.
In 2021, his Algae Grower project was selected as one of the 150 best innovations to feature in the Global Grad Show, a Dubai-based platform for promoting design innovation. In 2023, the Algae Grower won the first prize for innovation at the China (Wenzhou) Industrial Design Competition, and it is currently featured in a permanent exhibition. Maurizio Vrenna has recently been recognised as one of the few “Friendly Messengers in Poetry and Painting” in the Zhejiang Province for his efforts to enhance the transmission of Chinese culture and promote international cultural exchanges.
MONACŒCOART® had the pleasure to collect a meaningful insight from Dr Maurizio Vrenna on the occasion of an exclusive interview where he shared his vision of being sustainable in industrial design.
🔸KEY TOPICS = 🗣️ WHAT MAKES INDUSTRIAL DESIGN SUSTAINABLE? >> 🗣️ WHAT DOES IT MEAN INNOVATE MAKING DIFFERENCE ON THE MARKET? >> 🗣️ WHAT PROJECT WOULD YOU PROMOTE TO BRING INDUSTRIAL DESIGN TO A NEW LEVEL OF SUSTAINABILITY? >> 🗣️ WHAT CHALLENGES TO FACE FROM THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL POINTS OF VIEW?
🎙INTERVIEW
MONACŒCOART®: The way products and packaging of daily use are designed has changed significantly in recent decades, following the growing trend of Profit, People and Planet (Triple Bottom Line) and the expanding consumers’ ‘eco-consciousness’. Thus, “doing with less” has blown up as the new mantra addressed to “remake the way we make things” (M. Braungart, W. McDonough, Cradle to Cradle, Vintage Books, London, 2009). Being fully sustainable is not always an achievable goal, with the risk of declaring a product or a service as 'green' without adequate accuracy. In your opinion, what does it really mean to create sustainable industrial design? Can you give us some examples of sustainable projects that you have successfully completed?
🗣️ Maurizio Vrenna : Creating sustainable industrial design means approaching the design process with a holistic perspective that considers the environmental, social, and economic impacts throughout a product's entire lifecycle. It involves selecting materials, manufacturing methods, and developing distribution strategies that minimise resource consumption and reduce waste, ultimately aiming for zero emissions. This approach does not simply imply using recycled materials but also includes designing items for durability, easy-to-fix capacity, and ability to be dismantled in a few steps in order to facilitate material recovery.
Sustainability does not necessarily require designing a tangible product, being in line with the World Design Organisation’s 2015 definition of Industrial Design. Instead, it may involve envisioning a service, a system, or even an experience.
To give an example, I refer to a sustainable project I have completed, the Algae Grower (See Photo No. 1), an open-source home device for the production and semi-automatic collection of fresh Spirulina, a highly nutritious microalgae. The need to feed an ever-growing population while facing the depletion of global resources led me to envision new devices, new functions, new usage rituals, and a set of unique decentralised models for producing healthy and sustainable food.
MONACŒCOART®: In a recent interview, you stated: “Is it necessary to produce new things? You can recover traditions, change details, start from what already exists, mix, compose”, stressing the importance of connecting as many stakeholders as possible to be sustainable. What do you get from your many years of experience as a designer for leading companies and university researcher at pioneering campuses? What makes the difference in the globalised market?
🗣️ Maurzio Vrenna : When I said that, I was referring to the idea that innovation does not always mean creating from scratch. In a world where resources are finite, sustainable design requires a thoughtful reconsideration of existing materials, processes, and cultural heritage. By connecting different stakeholders—designers, manufacturers, local artisans, researchers, and consumers—we can foster a more responsible and innovative approach to industrial design.
Through my personal, professional, and academic experience across three continents, I have had the opportunity to gain a 360° view of the design world: understanding different approaches to sustainability in various countries, visiting factories, engaging with local governments, entrepreneurs, and institutions. I have then realised that sustainable design is complex. Sometimes, linear solutions are ineffective because the problems are wicked.
In my opinion, regardless of place and time, what truly makes a difference in a globalised market is the ability to integrate tradition with innovation, craftsmanship with technology, and environmental consciousness with industrial efficiency.
Most importantly for designers, it is essential to collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds and expertise, such as architects, engineers, scientists, biologists, businesspeople, policymakers, philosophers, and more, to develop truly multidisciplinary projects that are meaningful for society, and not just for investors. This approach is also at the core of the so call “systemic design” discipline (See Photo No. 2).
MONACŒCOART®: Thinking about the near future, what project would you like to work on to bring industrial design to a new level of sustainability? What new challenges are you asked to minimise the environmental and social impacts of industrial products?
🗣️ Maurizio Vrenna : At the moment, I am working on several exciting projects, each addressing sustainability in a different way. For example, the Modern Bamboo Inlay project (See Photo No.3) aims at preserving the traditional bamboo inlay technique by exploring ways to innovate it through the design of new products, the use of alternative materials and colours, the introduction of contemporary production techniques, and the infusion of new meanings. Meanwhile, for a Chinese company, I am designing a retro-style dishwasher which incorporates smart functions to save water and electricity, encouraging users to adopt more conscious consumption habits. In addition, in the Sustainable Design course, an advanced-level studio for industrial design students in their final year, I challenge them to create provocative electricity-free kitchens, fridges, washing machines, dishwashers, and air purifiers designed for specific regions of the world. (See Photo No.4).
Moreover, I have started a collaboration with an Eyewear case factory. Together with their design team, we will work on to developing a system capable of collecting discarded fishing nets from the local sea and upcycling them into materials for new products within their collection. Finally, I am designing a tea and coffee set, a project still in its early stages. I am currently experimenting with different materials. I would like to use marble, an elegant, precious, but most importantly, eternal material that could elevate my product to a collectible piece, meant to be passed down for generations. I do believe that sustainability is also about durability and the art of cherishing beautiful things that we will never get bored of. ***
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By Maurice Abbati
Journalist; Editor; Communication, Media and Public Relations Specialist
Lecturer and Author in English language of Technical Articles and the Manual: "Communicating the Environment to Save the Planet, a Journey into Eco-Communication" by Springer International Publishing.
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