A Perfect Weekend: new lifestyles for new living patterns

By Carlotta Zucchini - 8 January 2010

Design can have a social impact, changing attitudes and behaviour. For Aldo Cibic,”A Perfect Weekend” is a story – or rather the continuation of a story - the began with “Microrealities” at the last edition of the Venice Architecture Biennial. It tells about alternative lifestyles that make life more enjoyable, and us more aware. Although presented as a series of tents, Cibic’s story has nothing to do with camping. His, is a wider appeal to new forms of sociality and living together, a call to go back to basics without, however, surrendering the good things of life. This is Cibic’s economic and ecological answer to today’s unrestrained consumerism, his retort to a general lowering of standards.
Although named according to the accepted code, the “5 star" tent, is the antithesis of today’s mass holiday-season migrations. It is an icon to a new style of living. A Perfect Weekend is not just a stimulating design project.
It is the fruit of serious socio-economic research that points the way to more respectful consumption patterns and a renewed sense of the quality and worth of things - without, however, relinquishing our aesthetic sense. It raises issues like the falling purchasing power of the middle classes, and the need to restore respect for material and immaterial values. In striving for spatial harmony of materials, forms and structures, Cibic is also making a statement about harmony between ethics and aesthetics.

Carlotta Zucchini