Porro Changes 'Home'

23/05/2023 - An immersive three-colour installation opens the doors of the new Porro showroom in Milan, Via Visconti di Modrone 29, inaugurated on the occasion of Milan Design Week 2023. In a brick, glass and metal building designed and set up by architect Piero Lissoni, the historic Como-based brand displays the new 2023 products designed by Alessandro Mendini, Piero Lissoni and GamFratesi, together with catalogue collections. With a double visibility on the central Via Visconti di Modrone and the footpath Via Ronchetti, the multi-material construction still a work in progress is articulated in a multi-level interior full of design possibilities, animated by a layout inspired by Bruno Munari's colour studies.
 
In a journey between past and present, the furnishings that have marked the history of the brand and the new products produced in 2023 dialogue with the trichromatic installation created by the visual design studio Sfelab.

A 'cyclorama' surrounds the visitor with a landscape of juxtaposed colours visible only with a pair of coloured glasses. Depending on the colour chosen, green red or blue, a different story is shown, travelling from the company's beginnings in an early 20th century Brianza to the present of single-brand showrooms on international lands, and offering a glimpse of a future to be imagined.

New products 2023 in the Porro showroom in Milan

Among the novelties furnishing the new Porro showroom in Milan, the three Linea storage units designed in 2013 by Alessandro Mendini and produced in 2023 are the result of careful research in the Mendini archive by Maria and Lorenzo Porro together with the designer's daughters. Solid parts with optical geometric patterns flank colourful empty spaces in a decorative and emotional richness. Displayed in the showcase, the new Romby armchair by GamFratesi opens up new possibilities in the home office and contract sector. The shapes of the upholstered shell widen and rise to create armrests supported by four central legs. Practical and essential, the base gives an unprecedented feeling of lightness compared to the full volume of the original model designed in 2020, which parades around the showroom entrance.

Porro showroom in Milan - Catalogue collections

Not only new collections, the new Porro showroom in Milan is also set up with furnishings that have punctuated the brand's history.

Homage is paid to the naturalness of materials in Piero Lissoni's Ryoba table, with triangular-section legs and an oiled solid ash wood top. The proportions of the table, narrow and long to respect the natural size of the logs, invite a new intimate conviviality, while the splits left visible and the tessellated knots underline the materiality of the furniture.

They are matched by Voyage chairs designed by GamFratesi in 2016 and consisting of an exposed frame in solid turned maple and a leather upholstery that gives shape to the back and seat.

Strict lines and reduced thicknesses distinguish the Metallico table by Lissoni in 2011, in which the solid aluminium of the top and legs with an L section is coloured in Rosso Antico.
 
Cubovo by Bruno Munari, produced in 2008, could not be missing. Usable in the dining room as a food trolley, or in the bedroom as a capacious bedside table, thanks to the 4 flap openings, the wooden cube proposes a design, typical of the 1960s, that transcends the fashions of the moment.

Ex-Libris designed by Piero Lissoni in 2011 introduces the latest area: the glass display case designed to store and display rich collections.
 
Minimal and material, the Materic Oval table, designed by the same architect in 2022, accompanies the new Romby armchairs with its oval top and truncated cone base, both in solid Latte ash wood.
 
Lissoni celebrates craftsmanship with the 2019 Offshore series of storage units made of ash wood with an open-pore varnish and an unusual way of opening: a hole entirely plated in metal creates a sort of handle in negative, rediscovering new tactile sensations.

On the mezzanine, the Curry trapezoidal sofas designed by Piero Lissoni in 2018. The structure in solid ash stained black becomes a frame for the backrest in woven Vienna straw dyed black.

The Kite armchairs by GamFratesi, with their plastic fan shape, fit in soberly around the Left bench, designed by Lissoni in 2018.

In an overlapping of layers, the company's narrative travels freely in time and space, including a small exhibition dedicated to Maestro Bruno Munari realised in collaboration with Corraini Edizioni.

Porro on Archiproducts