Born in Palermo in 1970, Giuseppe Amato graduated from the University of Pavia in 1993 with a degree in molecular biology. In 1994, during a trip to Japan, he met the designer Sori Yanagi, with whom he visited Villa Katsura in Kyoto. From that moment on he abandoned his research at the university and began to work with wood. He opened a studio/workshop in Milan with old machinery salvaged from a historic carpentry shop. There he learned to use the techniques of classic cabinet-making and created furniture of his own design, combining the study of construction techniques and materials with his own research on shapes. His aim was to avoid not only the "déjà vu" feeing of antiques, but also the banality of industrial production, thus creating unique pieces. He had a show with Ron Arad and Philippe Starck and other exhibitions in Tokyo and Osaka at the Hankyu and Isetan art galleries. In 2004 he opened a studio to design "unexpected homes", dwellings mostly in wood, conceived as art objects. "Nautoscopio" is the first project from the "unexpected homes" series, which will be presented at the Port of Palermo in 2009 with a Public Art project.