About Conceptual Devices
Situated within the field of epistemic design, Conceptual Devices operates through spatial thinking as an operative epistemic modality.
Epistemic design is a field of research and practice that investigates how design operates as a mode of knowledge production rather than as a solution-oriented discipline.
Conceptual Devices is a practice founded by Antonio Scarponi, as a long-standing body of work across spatial, curatorial, and design practices working on the conditions under which decisions take form.
Commissioned at early stages of projects, the practice shapes the conditions that make decisions possible.
Its work operates through epistemic actions that displace assumptions, expose problem structures, mediate knowledge, and activate agency.
The archive presents projects that articulate the practice.
Antonio Scarponi
FOUNDER OF CONCEPTUAL DEVICES, ANTONIO SCARPONI WORKS WITH DESIGN AS AN EPISTEMIC PRACTICE, PRODUCING STRATEGIES, IMAGINARIES, AND FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE THAT EXPOSE CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONDITIONS.
HIS WORK HAS BEEN PUBLISHED IN INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS AND PLATFORMS INCLUDING ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, DOMUS, ABITARE, WIRED, FAST COMPANY – DESIGN, DESIGNBOOM, AND DESIGN HABITAT, AND HAS BEEN EXHIBITED AT INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS SUCH AS THE VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE AND THE MAK VIENNA BIENNALE FOR CHANGE.
IN 2008, HE RECEIVED THE CURRY STONE DESIGN PRIZE FOR PIONEERING SOCIALLY ENGAGED DESIGN PRACTICES.
HE STUDIED ARCHITECTURE AT THE COOPER UNION IN NEW YORK AND AT IUAV VENICE, WHERE HE COMPLETED DOCTORAL RESEARCH IN URBAN DESIGN. SCARPONI HAS TAUGHT AND LECTURED INTERNATIONALLY SINCE 2005 AND HAS BEEN TEACHING AT THE ZURICH UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS SINCE 2013, WHERE HE IS PART OF THE MA CULTURAL CRITIQUE AND CURATORIAL STUDIES.
IN 2023, HE CO-FOUNDED THE INSTITUTE FOR SPATIAL THINKING TO ADVANCE SPATIAL DESIGN PRACTICES BEYOND DISCIPLINARY BOUNDARIES.
Antonio Scarponi's - Keynote at IKEA's Democratic Design Day - ECAL, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2017.
Reference: Sterling, Bruce, “One Hundred-plus Years of Design Manifestos”, Wired, 10 August, 2018.
[onceptual)evices Triangular Design Manifesto (2008)
00_ DESIGN SHOULD NOT BE BASED ON FORMAL PRINCIPLES – BUT ALWAYS ON AN IDEA OF SOCIETY.
01_ DESIGNED FORMS REPRESENT POSSIBLE SOCIAL ORDERS AND A LOT OF THEIR CONTRADICTIONS.
02_ DESIGN IS EVERYTHING. ANYTHING COULD BE DESIGNED. EVERYONE IS A DESIGNER.
03_ DESIGN ALLOWS SOCIAL INNOVATIONS. OFTEN IT IS NOT MADE BY DESIGNERS.
04_ DESIGN HAS NOT SCALE. IT COULD BE SMALL AND HAVE GREAT IMPACT.
05_ DESIGN IS NOT AN INNOCENT PRACTICE. DESIGNERS ARE WICKED.
06_ DESIGN SHOULD ENGAGE PEOPLE AND INTERACT WITH THEM.
07_ DESIGN IS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPLIED SCIENCE.
08_ DESIGN IS A FRAGMENT OF A CONCRETE UTOPIA.
09_ DESIGN PRODUCES CRITICAL AWARENESS.
10_ DESIGN MAKES YOU THINK.
11_ DESIGN EMPOWERS.
12_ DESIGN!