What the work is
Navone’s work is architectural and design practice spanning education, antidesign collaboration, award submissions, and curatorial reuse. It is not defined by a single artefact, but by method: disregard for convention, multiplicity over selection, and reactivation of discarded objects.
How it was made
Navone studied architecture at the Polytechnic University in Turin and graduated in 1973. From 1970 to 1980, she worked with Mendini, Sottsass Jr, and Branzi in Alchimia. She submitted 50 entries for the 1983 Osaka International Design Award. In 2023, she organised the Milan Furniture Fair exhibition Take It Or Leave It.
What works
Her methodology works: submitting 50 designs rejects singularity as virtue; organising Take It Or Leave It turns curation into redistribution. Both decisions treat constraint — institutional rules, scarcity narratives — as raw material.
What does not
The material does not establish any singular object, product, building or furniture design by Navone. No materials, dimensions, clients beyond Abet Laminati and the Milan Furniture Fair, manufacturing methods or technical specifications are given.
What it influenced
Her antidesign work produced energy that industry absorbed over time. The 2023 exhibition models a radical upcycling framework — distribution via lottery — but the material does not state influence on other designers, policies or systems.
Is it worth your time
Yes — her work maps a direct line from antidesign provocation to industrial absorption and curatorial reuse. It shows how constraint (e.g., one entry rule) becomes generative, and how refusal of hierarchy (50 designs, not one) prefigures participatory curation.