Playing with the silhouettes of animals is one of the favorite activities of designers, from Enzo Mari and his “16 Animali” (1956) to Luca Boscardin, who brought “Animal Factory”, a series of sculptures inspired by the bodies of gorillas, giraffes, wolves and crocodiles to Amsterdam’s NDSM-Werf district.
Toy designer by profession, animals have always been a great source of inspiration for Luca Boscardin, so much so that he chose them as the theme for the competition held by northern Amsterdam’s neighborhood. The aim was to help the redevelopment of the area where once stood the Nederlandsche Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij.

The site is constantly changing and transforming, just like the cities during the lockdown, when wild animals began to push their way inside the walls, inspiring Boscardin to create a series of illustrations that can be considered the first sketches of the “Animal Factory” project.
The stylized lines and bright colors are deliberately a way to stand out in the industrial context, following the designer’s usual playful approach. The four tubular steel sculptures are in fact a resting place for adults and a playground for children, which in the first design drawings was also to include pelicans, penguins, octopuses and seahorses. An urban zoo of 1:1 scale animals that have discovered the city.