The Choice of Design. The Production of Anna Maria Fundarò between Project and Graphic Expression

Anna Maria Fundarò was the first professor of the Chair of Industrial Design established in 1971 on Vittorio Gregotti's initiative at the Faculty of Architecture in Palermo, where she taught from the ‘70s until the late '90s. She has expressed an extraordinary commitment to experimentation and theoretical elaboration of different aspects of the project, oriented to modernity, but also concretely in dialogue with a territorial context, rich in widespread knowledge and equally diffused cultural and environmental resources. But, above all, Anna Maria Fundarò has scientifically founded and built an original Sicilian design school, marked by the expression "Design for Development", from the title of a great conference which she organized in 1982. From the conference emerged a wide and multifaceted map of Italian Design culture, which at that time did not have a specific degree course at the University, as it was part of Architecture Studies. Anna Maria Fundarò was an architect who chose design as a projectuality oriented to socio-cultural aspects and innovation, capable of promoting a problematic economic and productive environment that seemed unable to restart from its own specifics and vocations. Of her vast scientific-didactic and professional production, the paper will in particular examine her approach to the theme of living, between design and architecture, not confined to the home, but extended to all the places where people live, work, experience; a faceted design dimension to explore even with respect to graphic expression and representation techniques.