EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a selection of drawings from the book Kiribati: An Island World Vanishes into the Ocean (Büro Sieveking GmbH, 2017), in which the authors, Alice Piciocchi and Andrea Angeli, compose a twin-track story: a travel diary complemented by precise illustrations. It transports the reader to the island nation of Kiribati, an archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where the topography—and the survival of its inhabitants—are threatened by the rising seas. The people of Kiribati, it seems, are condemned to imminent forced migration. The volume offers an original way of thinking about the consequences of climate change, emphasizing how it can touch and alter lives, disrupt communities, and extinguish long standing traditions and cultures. The book was awarded Honorable Mention at Compasso d’Oro 2018.
“We left Italy expecting to find a nation in a state of emergency, frightened families with their suitcases packed, and an evacuation plan consolidated and shared at the national level. However, we found ourselves in a completely different scenario. Construction sites to pave the only road alongside houses made of wood and leaves, kids eating potato chips yet without drinking water, men walking everywhere with their tablets yet barefoot, women who use perfume yet wash themselves in the rain.”
Alice Piciocchi and Andrea Angeli, Kiribati: An Island World Vanishes into the Ocean, Büro Sieveking GmbH, 2017. Image courtesy the authors.
Alice Piciocchi and Andrea Angeli, Kiribati: An Island World Vanishes into the Ocean, Büro Sieveking GmbH, 2017. Image courtesy the authors.
Alice Piciocchi and Andrea Angeli, Kiribati: An Island World Vanishes into the Ocean, Büro Sieveking GmbH, 2017. Image courtesy the authors.
Alice Piciocchi and Andrea Angeli, Kiribati: An Island World Vanishes into the Ocean, Büro Sieveking GmbH, 2017. Image courtesy the authors.
Alice Piciocchi and Andrea Angeli, Kiribati: An Island World Vanishes into the Ocean, Büro Sieveking GmbH, 2017. Image courtesy the authors.
Alice Piciocchi and Andrea Angeli, Kiribati: An Island World Vanishes into the Ocean, Büro Sieveking GmbH, 2017. Image courtesy the authors.
Alice Piciocchi and Andrea Angeli, Kiribati: An Island World Vanishes into the Ocean, Büro Sieveking GmbH, 2017. Image courtesy the authors.
Alice Piciocchi and Andrea Angeli, Kiribati: An Island World Vanishes into the Ocean, Büro Sieveking GmbH, 2017. Image courtesy the authors.
Alice Piciocchi and Andrea Angeli, Kiribati: An Island World Vanishes into the Ocean, Büro Sieveking GmbH, 2017. Image courtesy the authors.
Alice Piciocchi and Andrea Angeli, Kiribati: An Island World Vanishes into the Ocean, Büro Sieveking GmbH, 2017. Image courtesy the authors.
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Andrea Angeli
Andrea Angeli graduated in Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano. His wide professional activity in design includes experience on construction sites, as well as in publishing and research. He’s now working for DONTSTOP architettura. The illustrations in this book are his.
Alice Piciocchi
Alice Piciocchi holds a degree in Industrial Design from the Politecnico di Milano. She researches, writes, and publishes on topics of architecture and design. She’s now working for Abitare magazine. The stories in this book are an account of her trip to Kiribati.
The XXII Triennale di Milano, Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival, highlights the concept of restorative design and studies the state of the threads that connect humans to their natural environments––some frayed, others altogether severed. In exploring architecture and design objects and concepts at all scales and in all materials, Broken Nature celebrates design’s ability to offer powerful insight into the key issues of our age, moving beyond pious deference and inconclusive anxiety. By turning its attention to human existence and persistence, the XXII Triennale will promote the importance of creative practices in surveying our species’ bonds with the complex systems in the world, and designing reparations when necessary, through objects, concepts, and new systems. Even to those who believe that the human species is inevitably going to become extinct at some point in the (near? far?) future, design presents the means to plan a more elegant ending. It can ensure that the next dominant species will remember us with a modicum of respect: as dignified and caring, if not intelligent, beings.
Broken Nature is composed of a thematic exhibition and a number of international participations solicited through official channels. It will run from March 1 to September 1, 2019.
