Glass future Lab : Murano glass production and digital manufacturing: possible relationships in the future scenario

Starting from the Glass Future Lab project presented by AUT design collective with Daniele Vendrame at the Fondaco dei Tedeschi on the occasion of Glass Week 2022, the contribution proposes a reflection on the theme of the possibilities of intervention in the traditional process of manufacturing glass artefacts. The aid of digital manufacturing is taken into consideration in order to respond to the needs of the production economy (to reduce waste, albeit in relatively small numbers), to facilitate certain assembly phases and to accommodate the increasingly stringent demand for product customisation. The project, which was an opportunity to rethink the production process, reversing some of the processing phases, opens up a series of important considerations, some related to the opportunity, even conceptual, of combining glass and plastic material - in a sort of unprecedented counterpoint - others of broader scope, around the future of a glass sector, the art glass sector, which suffers from historical and inherent immobility. Imagining new ways to hybridise production processes therefore means, beyond the purely technical aspect, thinking about training projects aimed at creating new professionals to be included as professional figures in the sector (from the operator to the digital craftsman) and dreaming of a future that stems from continuity with the sector's historical legacy and its topicality.