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From philosopher to craftsman. If the academic knowledge gives way to the knowledge of the hands

• Articles
• 8 January 2014

Inventing and reinventing itself: when the craft becomes a means to take flight into the world of post-graduate work

What is lacking or disappeared can be created or rebuilt. This is the motto of all those young people that after graduation embarked on an unusual journey and not directly connected to the academic path.

It is the journey to discover hidden resources that give life to amazing projects thanks to a good dose of imagination, resourcefulness, courage, intelligence. Elisa Di Battista, journalist and blogger, followed closely the “flight testing” of these brave, and collected interviews and curious experiences of Laureati Artigiani.

The new graduates stories, struggling with the crisis of jobs, portend a happy ending, or at least a glimmer on a generation that relies on creativity and manual skills and in front of the unemployment replies with an ace up its sleeve: a handmade “DIY ” craft.

Among the numerous stories, the Stefano Martinelli’s one, a 32 year-old Tuscan from Stiava (Lucca), impressed us. From philosopher to craftsman the step was short for Stefano: it all started from a bamboo forest near home. At the beginning a “recreational” place and after “working” one: maybe it’s just the origin in philosophy that has helped Stefano to keep an open mind, vibrant and flexible as the bamboo poles. Many features and variety of a so supple plant and curiosities about it. Not everybody knows, for example, that it was a Tuscan, Orazio Fenzi, who introduced it in Italy in 1884.

Today this material plays the lead role in the laboratory “Bambuseto.” The project was created just for fun, thanks to the meeting of friends and to the union of different types of knowledge (landscaper, architects, designers) and was enriched over time by the jaunty interaction between spirits full of inventiveness and predisposition to change.

Bambuseto is the demonstration of the versatility that always rewards, whether it’s a building and furniture material or guys who, like Stefano, make our country even more valuable.