‘The Universitat owns a huge heritage, which is the result of the legacy of so many personalities of the society of Valencia, so it belongs to all Valencian people’, claims the Principal of the Universitat de València, thankful for the legacy that increases the funds the Universitat de València catalogues, studides and divulges.

Among the main objectives of the creation of the Arxiu Valencià del Disseny, the purpose is to disseminate and facilitate the access to its funds through digitalisation and online search. The research staff on design and contemporary culture will have original documentation at hand in order to analyse creative, productive and diffusion processes. They want to make the most of this research so that they can publish and exhibit their funds, to highlight their importance and consolidate design as a field of study.

The Principal of the Universitat de València has pointed out the significance of preserving and being aware of our past in order to control our future. She has also appreciated the importance of design, creativity and innovation capacity of Valencian business owners who, throughout history, have developed industrial sectors that have contributed to the creation of jobs, wealth and support of our European social model.

L’Arxiu Valencià del Disseny has been created with the donations of the professional legacies of designers Vicent Martínez and Lola Castelló, as well as the documentation about projects developed by the company Punt Mobles since its foundation until 2012. Apart from the initial legacy of Punt Mobles, other legacies join the project, like Martínez Peris’, Curvadora Valenciana, Gasisa and La Mediterrànea, thanks to the mediation of Manuel Lecona.

Martínez has thanked the support and involvement of the Universitat and other institutions with their legacy in the moment when he was closing his stage as a designer. Lecuona, on his behalf, has shown his ‘personal satisfaction’ for contributing with his fund raising work to the recovering of the heritage and memory of industrialisation and Valencian design. Finally, the director of the EASD has highlighted the importance of knowing the creative process of design objects.

The Universitat de València will manage the Arxiu Valencià del Disseny, which will initially be located at the Faculty of Geography and History, through its General Foundation in order to provide the necessary continuity and stability to the project. It will also facilitate suistained work so that it can yield results. 

‘We provide management experience and outreach activities and actions in the cultural scope and in the case of the Arxiu we will spread Valencian design as a part of the cultural heritage of the Universitat’, explains Cristobal Suria, Foundation manager.

The Arxiu Valencià del Disseny will have an Executive Department, a Support Committee and a Monitoring Committee, which will evaluate and supervise its work. In this Committee there will be representation of the Universitat and the EASD València, the donors, the field of design through its associations, the interested Valencian universities, public institutions and other private sponsors who collaborate to the funding of the project, as well as prestigious personalities from the field of design, culture and business.

It will foster and encourage the addition of works and legacies from other Valencian designers and artists through donations or loans with continuity vocation at the Universitat de València.