Francesca Lanzavecchia and the language of industrial poetry

This episode of Behind takes us into the Milan studio of Francesca Lanzavecchia, where design unfolds as a language of industrial poetry. Her objects are never reduced to function alone but become vessels of narrative, empathy, and innovation. A designer and creative director, Lanzavecchia defines herself as both a storyteller and a researcher, roles that allow her to interlace curiosity with material practice and give form to ideas that resonate far beyond their use.

Her career began with the founding of Lanzavecchia + Wai in 2010, created with Singaporean designer Hunn Wai after their studies at the Design Academy of Eindhoven. The partnership was conceived as a bridge between two worlds: Italy, a place Lanzavecchia describes as the most beautiful laboratory in which to work, where craftsmanship and beauty are interwoven into daily life, and Singapore, where Wai brought an outlook shaped by technological optimism and innovation. Their work sought to combine these different perspectives into projects that balanced heritage and forward-thinking vision.

Two years ago, Lanzavecchia established her own studio in Milan, focusing on product design with a strong humanistic and poetic approach. Curiosity sits at the core of her practice—a restless drive to question, to see the world from perspectives other than her own, and to accept that design begins with the awareness of not knowing. This openness has become her way of navigating disciplines, integrating philosophy, science, and technology into design processes that address contemporary life while anticipating its future.

Her education reflects this duality. At the Politecnico di Milano she was immersed in the rigor and legacy of Italian design, while at Eindhoven she embraced lateral thinking and experimentation. These two influences taught her to work with complexity, to synthesize large amounts of information, and to distill them into essential gestures that eventually crystallize in a finished object. For her, design is not only about mastering form but also about engaging with wider cultural, humanistic, and technological contexts that can expand the possibilities of what an object can be.

For Lanzavecchia, objects cannot be separated from the processes that shape them. She challenges the assumption that Italian manufacturing is cold or mechanized. What she has discovered instead is a network of artisans whose skills transform industrial production into a deeply human endeavor. Visiting companies, engaging directly with craftspeople, and observing how materials are handled are all essential steps in her approach. She insists that designers should spend more time inside factories, just as the great masters once did, because it is there that opportunities emerge to shift perspectives, reimagine processes, and push the boundaries of form.

Her collaborations with manufacturers such as Fiam and De Castelli embody this philosophy. Both are known for their mastery of materiality: glass and metal, respectively, handled with an artistry that surprises and redefines perception. Being part of these journeys, she notes, is “magical,” because it means witnessing firsthand the transformation of matter into objects that carry both poetry and pragmatism.

What emerges from her practice is a balance between rigor and imagination. Her objects respond to functional needs but are equally charged with narrative depth. They are shaped by empathy, designed with attention to fragility, and infused with a sensitivity to the cultural and material contexts in which they are produced. This is what she calls industrial poetry: design that holds within it the strength of production and the delicacy of human experience.

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