Aldo Cibic

Rethinking Happiness during the Venice Biennale in 2010

Rethinking Happiness during the Venice Biennale in 2010

By the age of 22, Aldo was working at the studio of Ettore Sottsass. In 1980, he became a founding partner of the studio Sottsass & Associati.[2] That same year, in collaboration with Sottsass, Cibic became a founding member of Memphis Group – a collective association dedicated to design and architecture. The Memphis group would remain active until 1987.[3][4] The Memphis experience led Cibic to assume an experimental approach as his norm.[5][6]

Decisive the relationship with Ettore Sottsass, who chose him as a partner when Aldo was in his twenties, and in his last interview declares: “I do not think I have left any traces of my work, maybe something in Aldo Cibic” .[7]

Towards the end of the 1980s, Aldo began to reflect on a more personal concept of creativity, which inspired the launch of his first independent project. In line with his idea of a more human, less heroic form of design, he choose not only to design objects for the home, but also to sell them, He presented his first self-produced collection, entitled “Standard”,[8][9][10] to the public from his loft home in Milan, inaugurating a tradition of impromptu exhibitions, which have since become a means of testing his design projects and continue to guide his research.

His research activity in the field of "social innovation design" has developed through teaching in various schools of Design and Architecture (Domus Academy Milan, Politecnico Milan, IUAV Venice, Tongji University Shanghai). Starting with Family Business, in "The Solid Side"[11] initiative, launched in collaboration with Philips Corporate Design at the Domus Academy in the early 1990s, has produced pioneering projects, such as New Stories New Design (2002), and CitizenCity[12] (2003). These research projects fostered a dynamic relationship between people and space and offered a new mode of designing places based on social interactions, revolving around a central theme: the interpretation of sustainability. An experience culminating with the "Microrealities"[13][14] project presented at the Biennale di Venezia in 2004.

For the 12th edition of Biennale di Venezia in 2010, 43 artists were invited by Kazuyo Sejima, including Aldo Cibic to propose a project called "Rethinking happiness"[15] aimed at creating and enhancing happiness in new communities through 4 unique projects. Aldo Cibic invited architects, agronomists, designers, sociologists and energy consultants for the projects.

In 2015, he curated the Venice Pavilion at the 56th International Art Exhibition Biennale of Venice,[16] exploring the declinations of the creative process between globalization and territorial roots.

In 2019 Aldo Cibic has been selected as High-End Foreign Expert by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of People's Republic of China.

Aldo Cibic is Honorary Professor at the Tongji University, Shanghai.

In 2021 he has been appointed Honorary Professor of Urban Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

His design pieces and drawings are exhibited in the permanent collections of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Groninger Museum, the CCA (Canadian Center for Architecture) in Montreal, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Triennale Museum of Italian Design in Milan and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Aldo Cibic has been included by the architecture magazine Domus in the guide to the world's best architects “100+ best architecture firms 2019”. Inter alia, Domus editors Alessandro Mendini and Joseph Grima put forward a selection in favour of giving a voice to practices that show how “it may be possible for social architecture to really bloom in the future”.

Using investigative research into design, Cibic Workshop observes the built environment from a different perspective and on a different scale. The individual becomes the central focus, along with his/her complex system of relationships, his/her ability to imagine and invent, to discover new opportunities and to take advantage of change.

Cibic Workshop focuses on alternative sustainable project types aimed at enhancing whole local areas and defining new cultural, emotional and environmental awareness of public space.

In 2020 Cibic Workshop opened a new office in Shanghai, with a focus on creating meaningful and culturally relevant objects, spaces and communities, both public and private, through addressing the issues we see as most important to society today.

Key Areas of work:

• Accessible beauty for domestic spaces
• Communal Landscapes creating a sense of community and responsibility for shared spaces and environments
• The New Old, new design from old materials

2023 - Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.[17]

• Cibicworkshop Official website
• Finding aid for the Aldo Cibic Microrealities Project collection, Canadian Centre for Architecture