via Monticelli 6c
20159 Milano
via Giunchetto 26b
Santa Margherita Ligure
16038 Genova
Annalisa Dominoni, Benedetto Quaquaro
BIOGRAPHY
Annalisa Dominoni and Benedetto Quaquaro are architects, designers, PhD and professors at Politecnico di Milano, School of Design, where they created and direct the 1st and unique International Master of Science’ Course in “Space Design” in the world, recognized and supported by the European Space Agency (ESA), in which research and teaching are strongly connected with industry to create a dialogue between distant technologies, behaviours and productive knowledge, and to generate innovation. Both believe in the strategic role of “Space Design” because is able to speak both the different languages of science and beauty, putting at the same time the human being in the centre. If an astronaut lives better in a comfortable environment, considering in addition to the usability also physiological, psychological and emotional factors, they performances increase, together with the success of the whole mission. They carry out academic, design and research activities for Space and Extreme Environments designing new habitations and tools to facilitate human missions in microgravity, increase astronauts’ well-being, and create new business opportunities for the Space Economy, through new applications of space technologies in the private sector. Guest Speakers at international conferences, including Space4Inspiration organized by ESA, and Visiting Professors at the most prestigious universities in the world, they are both Directors of the Higher Education Course “Space Fashion Design” with ESA at POLI.design, the Politecnico di Milano consortium.
Thanks to their more than twenty-year experience in researching and designing habitation modules and tools that have been used by astronauts on-board the International Space Station (ISS), Annalisa and Benedetto have helped assert Design’s role and purpose in the Space field. Annalisa has written more than 200 scientific publications and received recognitions and awards for her work which has helped assert the role of Design in Space. She has been Principal Investigator of scientific experiments with astronauts onboard the International Space Station: GOAL, “Garments for Orbital Activities in weightLessness”, ENEIDE Mission, ESA; VEST, “Integrated Clothing System for Intra-Vehicular Activities”, MARCO POLO Mission, ASI. Benedetto has been curator of exhibitions between art and technology. Design engineering manager for Tecno, he has developed the ABV design collection working with international architects and artists such as Getulio Alviani, Gae Aulenti, Norman Foster, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Luigi Veronesi.
They founded in 2011 the studio (a+b) Annalisa Dominoni, Benedetto Quaquaro with the aim of making design in very different areas contaminating research and technological innovation with poetry: an industrial design for the big industry, fashion tech, transportation, products and services, collections of objects and furniture, limited editions for art and design galleries. In 2015 they have been asked to design the new Leonardo trains of the Milan Metro for ATM, produced by Hitachi Rail, in which they have act on exterior and interior to define a strong identity of the trains that combines technology with beauty. In 2016 they were invited by ESA to direct the Italian “Couture in Orbit”, the fashion tech project of a capsule collection which integrates space technologies in clothes to be worn on Earth. The results were presented at the London Science Museum gaining more than 2 hundred thousand media feedbacks. Among their latest projects, in 2019 a new concept design of a Space Station for Thales Alenia Space, in which comfort and entertainment are considered for the first time a priority for the crew, and the acoustic objects for Caimi Brevetti, that received the award ADI Design Index.