Ernesto Basile: il primo industrial designer italiano

Abstract

This essay positions Ernesto Basile as Italy's first industrial designer, challenging the limited recognition of his contribution compared to contemporaries like Charles Rennie Mackintosh. While celebrated as a leading Italian Art Nouveau architect, Basile's pioneering work in furniture design deserves equal attention. The study identifies three key factors establishing Basile as a true designer: his industrial production approach, his subordination of ornament to function, and his role as art director for the Ducrot company. Through his collaboration with Vittorio Ducrot, Basile created furniture designed for serial production, anticipating modern industrial design principles and corporate image practices. The essay documents a contemporary educational project at the University of Palermo, where selected Basile furniture pieces undergo "material and immaterial" reconstruction following Filippo Alison's methodology - the same approach used in Cassina's iMaestri collection. This method involves three phases: selection, survey, and redesign, updating historical pieces with contemporary technologies while preserving their cultural significance. Six reconstructed pieces are analyzed, from the transformable Chair-ladder to the prophetic Torino armchair, which the 2018 Italian Design Museum exhibition identified as the starting point of Italian design. The project, conducted in collaboration with local company Caruso Handmade, demonstrates how academic research can bridge historical memory and contemporary innovation, positioning Palermo as the birthplace of Italian design through Basile's visionary work.