Animal Factory by Luca Boscardin

Installation Design January 10 2025

Intro

Animal Factory is a collection of metal animals designed in a minimal and abstract way, placed in the outdoor spaces of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Created by a toy designer and illustrator from Italy, Luca Boscardin.

Family of sculptural creatures—a giraffe, gorilla, crocodile, and wolf — Animal Factory uses simple metal tubing and a single monochromatic shade for each figure.

By reducing each animal to its most minimal form, the pieces invite viewers to open their minds and let their imaginations take flight. From one angle, the shapes might appear abstract and unidentifiable, but from another vantage point, the distinct silhouette of a gorilla or another creature becomes unmistakably clear. In this way, these sculptures provide moments of playful surprise, adding unexpected life and creativity to the industrial landscape.

How it Started

During Corona times cities became more silent, empty, and desolated, but somehow also more peaceful, friendly, natural; animals got closer to us, they were free to explore city centers and entire areas where they have never been before.

From all around the world we saw sweet and beautiful images of animals crossing streets, chilling in parks, playing in the parking areas: bears and deers in Italy, foxes and wolves in France, elephants and rhino in Africa... and in Amsterdam?

The essence of the project—a creative bridge between fantasy and reality, nature and industry. It’s a playful environment for children, a social space for adults, and a powerful connection between humans and animals. Set against the industrial backdrop of the NDSM shipyard, with its rich history, the project introduces a colorful flock of steel creatures—vivid, playful, and brimming with life.

Soccrates Images | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The streets of Amsterdam are in lockdown due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on April 12, 2020 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

“Sketches to Sculptures”

“This approach is a core intention of my work.” Luca said. “I’m always interested and seeking to simplify shapes and lines, with the idea of taking away everything extra, a constant work of subtraction. In this way, I let the imagination of the children and, grown ups too, to go wild.

In my daily work, as a toy designer, I’m always learning and taking inspiration from children’s world and their language made of iconic, simple and universal signs. All children know that a red car is a Ferrari or a stick in your hand is a sword. In the same way, few simple and tall yellow lines are a giraffe, and a green animal with a big mouth is a crocodile; you don’t need much more. We can all see our own giraffe, make it ours, because it’s not customized with details.

I always start by drawing lines and shapes in my notebook. In this case, I began sketching various animals with the aim of reducing the details to their simplest forms. The collection quickly grew wild: from elephants to camels, seahorses to buffaloes, I filled pages with schematic representations of animals.”

“Animal Factory is a collection of sculptures that invites visitors to interact with them and use their imagination to play, relax, or work out.

My hope is to encourage creativity and promote the multifunctional use of the NDSM-wharf. The structures of the different animals can serve as a gigantic playground for children, an alternative tool for exercise, a unique spot to hang out, or even a bike rack.”

“When I started to think more specifically about this project and the idea of transforming these lines into 3D objects, steel immediately came to mind as the best material.

for the first time, I couldn’t work in my studio, because of the dimensions of the animals. It was the very first time I was working with metals, this material is completely new to me.

As a children when you are playing with a sword or a gun, you want it to be strong to be heavy. Same way when you’re playing with an airplane, it is to be light, to be tall or to be soft. That’s the same thing when you see a toy gorilla in front of you, you expect it to be strong, so that metal was a good choice.

And it is the material and the production that exactly reflected the way I was drawing the animals, really simple and synthetic.

Collaborating with Iwan Snel, a steel carpenter based in the NDSM area, was an enriching exchange of ideas—combining aesthetics with functionality as well.”

Animal factory is a project that took Luca, a toy designer, way out of his comfort zone, it’s vital for Luca to keep the right exact proportion, functionality and appearance, from small sketches to big sculptures.

The motivation behind it, is to emphasise the contrast between the city and and the animals, and the animals themselves and people, in their real proportions.

Animal Factory

The farm collection(2022) is also included.
The pig, the cow, the ram and the duck

Interview

Since the pandemic is over, do we still need something to entertain us or to comfort us? Do you think we as adults need more urban toys or adult playgrounds?"

“We really need it a lot. I’m a big fan of Enzo Mari, and once he said, ‘Children live in a world of giants.’ And he meant — everything is designed and built for grownups, not for little children.

I wanted to create the same feeling — the same fear, surprise, and happiness —that you have as a child when you’re in front of something out of proportion.

And considering the quality of today’s playground, yes we do need some space that is well-designed for little ones, and for grownups.” Luca responded.

“If a playground is well designed for children, it means that it's also well designed for grownups as well.

I used to live in Amsterdam, where there is a lot of attention to playgrounds and for children. Right now I’m in Italy, which has a lot of beautiful things, but definitely, there is a lack of effort and quality in designing playgrounds. There are a lot of areas that are supposed to be for children, but they are just not well-designed. They are now so quiet, so empty, nobody’s there. The structures are boring. And because it’s a place that doesn’t offer anything for grownups. And if you as a grownup don’t enjoy a place, then you don’t even bring your child there.

Those structures have the potential to be used by both targets (if renovated), so grownups can work out, chill, sit, and also children. I think that those two fields can be integrated and the well-designed space is a space that combines those two targets.”

The full interview is available at the bottom of this page.

Outro

Animal Factory is a special mention by Fuorisalone in Milan among the best 20 projects during Milan Design Week 2022, and also the winner of the Open Call organized by Stichting NDSM-werf in Amsterdam.

The NDSM-werf area, located in the northern part of the city just across the IJ canal, was once a large industrial zone. Today, its old hangars and factories have been transformed into hotels, offices, apartments, and above all, studios for artists and designers.

Against this industrial backdrop, the playful placement of animal sculptures transforms the space into an unexpectedly welcoming environment. It’s a place of creativity and imagination not only for artists and professionals, but for everyone who visits.