Aldo Cibic

Italian designer

Professor of Practice at College of Design and Innovation,Tongji University

Visiting Professor at Politecnico di Milano, IUAV Venezia, Domus Academy Milano

Founder and owner of Cibicworkshop, a multidisciplinary design studio

Personal academic profile

   Aldo Cibic was born in Schio, Vicenza, Italy in 1955, and quickly developed a self-directed interest in the world of design.  In 1981, as a partner in Sottsass Associati, he was a founding member of Memphis, an artists’ collective that was to mark an epoch-making transition in the universe of design and architecture. By vocation and inclination an innovator, one who has never favoured generic labels nor stylistic excesses, Cibic adopted "experimentation as praxis”. In the late 1980s he founded the Studio Cibic and launched “Standard” (1991), his first self- produced collection.  At the same time he became a teacher at the Domus Academy and set up research activities with various schools, while developing his ideas around the "design of services". His projects, such as "The Solid Side" (1995) and "New Stories New Design" (2002), fostered a dynamic relationship between people and space and offered a new mode of designing places based on social interactions. He continued in this vein in subsequent years with "Microrealities" (2004) and "Rethinking Happiness" (2010). Both were presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and both originated contemporary narratives aimed at multiplying opportunities for meetings, exchanges and sharing in community life. In 2015 he curated the Venice Architecture Biennale of the Arts & Craft exhibition at the Venice pavilion.

   In 1989 he founded the Cibic Workshop, not only a design studio, but a multidisciplinary research centre. Cibic Workshop strongly focuses on alternative sustainable project types aimed at enhancing local areas and defining new cultural, emotional and environmental awareness of public space.  Aldo Cibic has been a lecturer at the Politecnico di Milano, at the IUAV in Venice and at the Domus Academy in Milan; he is professor of practice at the Tongji University College of Design & Innovation in Shanghai.

In 2019 he has been selected as High-End Foreign Expert by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China.

    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 in the “100+ best architecture firms 2019” distinguished for cultural innovation by the worldwide known architecture magazine Domus.

Research direction 

Services Design, Social Innovation, Design Thinking, Social Design, New Media Design 

Academic and social part-time

High-End Foreign Expert by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China, 2019

Education

Self-taught

Scuola politecnica di Design, Milano, Italy

Work experience

• 2018-present Professor of Practice, College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University

• 1984-2016 Visiting Professor at Politecnico di Milano, IUAV Venezia, Domus Academy Milano

• 1989-present Founder and owner of Cibicworkshop, a multidisciplinary design studio.

• 1981 Co-Founder of Memphis Design Movement

• 1980-1989 Partner at Sottsass Associates

Representative works, teaching materials, papers, patents and exhibitions in the last five years

Research Projects

• (In)complete, An Inquiry on Life and Design: a digital platform in open source, 2018 – New Media Design

• Looking ahead. The evolution of the art of making. 9 stories from Veneto: digital – not only digital, Curator of the Venice Pavilion, 56th Biennale Venezia, 2015 - Design Thinking 

• Freedom Room: Exhibition, Triennale di Milano, Milan 2013 - Social Design 

• Toward Expo Milano 2015, Exhibition, Milan, 2011 - Design Thinking 

• Rethinking Happiness: Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2010 - Social Innovation 

• More with less: Design Research, Milan 2009 - Social Innovation 

• Why Design?: CibicWorkshop Project 2006 - Design Thinking 

• A Perfect Weekend: Design Research and Exhibition, Cibic & Partners Studio, Milan 2005 - Social Innovation 

• Microrealities: Biennale di Architettura, Venice 2004 - Social Innovation 

• New Stories New Design: Biennale di Architettura, Venice 2004 - Services Design 

• Citizen_city: Design Research, Milan 2003 - Services Design 

• Smart Home Fitness: Design Research, Milan 1998 - Design Thinking 

• Family Business: The Solid Side, Domus Academy, Milan 1984 - Services Design 

Papers and Publications

• Miano, P. (2020). Healthscape (1st ed.). Macerata: Quodlibet.

• Cibic, A. (2019). (in)complete (1st ed.). Venezia.

• Cibic, A. (2018). (In)complete, Trying to make sense of a changing world. Domus, (1026).

• Cibic, A. (2015). Guardando avanti, l'evoluzione dell'arte del fare, 9 storie dal Veneto, digitale - non solo digitale. Venezia: Marsilio.

• Cibicworkshop. (2013). Freedom Room (1st ed.). Vicenza.

• Cibic, A. (2011). Verso Expo Milano 2015. Milano: Electa.

• Cibic, A. (2010). Rethinking Happiness - Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. New realities for changing lifestyles (1st ed.). Mantova: Corraini.

• Qun Deng, C. (2009). Aldo Cibic Italian Designer (1st ed.). Shanghai: Tongji University Press.

• Cibic, A. (2006). Microrealities. Milano: Skira.

• Doveil, F. (2005). Aldo Cibic. Milano: Abitare Segesta.

• Cibic, A., & Sharp, E. (2003). Citizen City (1st ed.). Milano.

• Cibic, A., & Branzi, A. (1999). Aldo Cibic Designer (1st ed.). Milano: Skira.

Exhibitions

• 2020 – Memphis in Shanghai – Curator – Tongji University - Shanghai

• 2019 – Aldo Cibic - Aesthetics of Vitality – Milano Design Week, Fuorisalone

• 2018 – (In)complete – Venezia, Caffè Florian and Moscow Design Weew

• 2015 – Biennale di Venezia, Venice Pavilion, “Looking Ahead” - Curator

• 2010 – Biennale di Venezia, Rethinking Happiness

• 2004 – Biennale di Venezia, Microrealities

• 1999 – Aldo Cibic Designer, Basilica Palladiana, Vicenza, Italy

Honors and Awards

• 2019 Aldo Cibic has been included by the architecture magazine Domus in the guide to the world's best architects “100+ best architecture firms 2019”.

• 2019 “Architectural masters” - Italian Association of Architecture and Criticism Award.

• 2011 Wallpaper* Design Award

• 2005 Honorary professorship in the Art and Design College of Architecture and Urban Planning Tongji University

Contact

Email: aldocibic@cibicworkshop.com

Website: www.cibicworkshop.com