Autarchie contemporanee e modelli di sviluppo meridiano : design e fibre naturali come patrimoni di cultura materiale

The relationship between design and natu- ral fibers is explored following what Tomàs Maldonado highlighted in the late 1980s. He perceived an extraordinary potential for design in the Southern Italy related to the «twofold advantage of reconnecting, on the one hand, with local traditions of material cultures and, on the other hand, introduc- ing further elements of modernization to this area» (Maldonado, 1991, p. 337). The reactivation and enhancement of sup- ply chains related to the production and use of natural fibers in the contexts of the World South, becomes a medium between ad- vanced technologies and ancient sapiential values, rooted in the soils from which those fibers originate, an exempla in the face of in- creasingly violent ecological pressure.