University professors, politicians and EU officials keep repeating that in a changing job market, “skills, skills, skills” are needed: yes, but which ones? Beyond the general indication that it must be digital stuff, the ideas don’t seem very clear.
So here is an idea that seems valid: in Rome there is the first academy in the world with an e-commerce dedicated to the creations of students. E-Commerce Quasar is the first and only online sales platform of a school where students offer their own design products made within the academy to the public.
To train students ready for the market, to structure teaching capable of preparing architecture and design students for confrontation with the public. It has never been easy, but there is an academy that has come up with a tool capable of presenting the most mature objects and projects of its students on the market.
Quasar e-commerce was officially launched a few days ago, a platform owned by QIAD – Quasar Institute for Advanced Design, a Roman academy with over thirty years of history, the first in the world to conceive a showcase of products designed and developed within of the design academy by the students and teachers of the academy themselves.
Quasar e-commerce sees the light thanks to the birth of Quasar Design Factory, a digital manufacturing laboratory set up with the best cutting-edge technologies, including the latest generation 3D printers, which allow teachers and students to prototype products, test them, assemble and produce them, making them immediately ready for sale, with the addition of great attention to the environment and sustainability.
The CEO, Luna Todaro explains: “We are very proud to have launched the first global e-commerce project of an academy, in which we will insert the best projects of our students, realized in our latest generation fab lab, with particular attention towards the environment. In fact, we will use natural, recycled materials and totally sustainable packaging “.
From the Factory to E-commerce: all in the Academy
The creative direction of the Factory is Alessandro Gorla, teacher and coordinator of degree and master courses at QIAD and owner of Studio Algoritmo, an important design company in the capital. “The laboratory” explains Alessandro Gorla “wants to emerge as an active reality in design as regards creativity, experimentation and production, opening its doors to the national and international production world, with the aim of creating a cultural and a virtuous circle between students, companies and universities. The aim is to operate as a real research center, with the aim of experimenting and improving new languages and production processes. In this way our young talents will have the opportunity to sign products and receive royalties, without waiting years to enter the market as a designer “.
The first collection: smart and ecological objects for the home
The first Quasar e-commerce collections are on sale on the site https://ecommerce.quasarinstitute.it. It is a series of objects, designed by Professor Gorla, Bianca Putotto and Gianmarco Guarascio, inspired by Flatlandia, the novel written in 1884 by Edwin A. Abbott that puts a multi-dimensional universe populated by intelligent objects at the center of the narrative. emotional, created for a young audience, but attractive for everyone. There is Bianca Putotto’s Empty Pocket in Quartiere, fun, easy to assemble and useful for those with a short memory. The Quarters Empty Pocket is an object suitable for all those who ask themselves every morning: “But where did I park last night?”. With a few moves you can recreate your neighborhood, its main streets and landmarks so you can position the toy car on the map. Then there are Alessandro Gorla’s Architectures for Birds: who said that a robin cannot have one of the most iconic villas of all time as a nest? Here’s how a bird shelter can become a home everyone envies: LeCorbusier’s Villa Savoye, Rietveld’s Schröder House or Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater House. Finally, there is the Q-Lampshade, by Gianmarco Guarascio, a lampshade that, crossed by light, takes on a milky appearance that evokes the gaseous luminosity of a particular astral phenomenon.