The project for the new venue successfully showcases the brand’s three core elements: collection, surfaces, and architectural - these embody the company’s great expressive capacity and production expertise in the crafting of metal, the culmination of innovative research which combines outstanding craftsmanship and technological know-how.
'The large historic door of the 17th-century building will be left open at all times,' explains Cino Zucchi. 'In the entrance, a second glass and brass portal will invite visitors into a sequence of spaces where fixed and mobile furnishings - in different metals with various finishes - will showcase De Castelli's technical and aesthetic potential. The interior design is not simply a backdrop for the collection and activities but is a real interactive 'staging' of the potential offered by the collaboration between designers and brand. It is a 'think-tank' in which design imagination, craft and continuous technological research merge to generate original creations'.
The door
The entrance is defined by two large asymmetrical 'blades', a reference to the building's historic door. Made of DeLabré brass, they interpret De Castelli's mastery in creating large, flat surfaces. The blades can move during the day from an open welcome to a semi-closed glimpse of the interior.
Beyond the portals, the second glass and brass door has a large handle forged using 'rods' that intertwine in a double spiral.
The entrance hall
The entrance consists of two large apses, two double-curved DeLabré brass elements, made by rediscovering the ancient technique of 'hammering' derived from the tradition of car design and still in use today for car prototypes.
In this first room, there are also cylindrical supporting elements, a product designed to document the like-mindedness of De Castelli and Laboratorio Morseletto, which led to numerous collaborations and important achievements. The cylinders are a mix of stone powders, pigments and lime putty applied to a cylindrical metal structure. The idea is that the cylinders can function as movable bollards placed outdoors during events.
The entryway
The space where meetings unfold around a large round table houses large arched cabinets in DeLabré brass, designed for storage, monitor housing, etc.. Some of the cabinets repeat the vault motif reinterpreted with simple, abstract lines. As if it were background music, the vault becomes the space's leitmotif, also repeated in the entrance hall, gallery and materials library.
The materials library
This is where all the metal samples are kept, along with their finishes, oxidations, polychrome tones, multiple textures and patterns. The large shelving unit along the entire wall is screened by a sort of caneté of vertical burnished aluminium 'rods'. The idea of the rod, a minimal element expressed in different ways in the various rooms, demonstrates how to obtain infinite variations starting from a simple and anonymous form.
The gallery
The room for presenting the De Castelli collections is marked by a succession of incomplete arches. The frontal element resembles a 'T' in burnished DeMaistral copper, creating niches on a neutral background to enhance displays and exhibitions featuring the company's products. The space hosts the new Rame At Home collection. The entrance cabinet, game table, bar and service furnishings are designed by Lanzavecchia + Wai, Zanellato/Bortotto, Martinelli Venezia Studio and Adriano Design, who interpret a new way of working with natural copper.
For more information about the De Castelli showroom project, click here.DE CASTELLI on ARCHIPRODUCTS
