DESIGN ON STAGE
Set up: Piero Lissoni.
After its opening last April as a construction site with a three-dimensional visual installation, and its inauguration on 6 October, the new Porro showroom on Via Visconti di Modrone 29 in Milan is now presented to the international public in its official guise.
Transformed by Piero Lissoni’s architectural project into a white, pure and linear box, a conceptual space whose 6 windows become like screens over the city, during the FuoriSalone, Porro Milano showroom is the setting for a window display story, from the table to the wardrobe, in a comprehensive project that narrates the iconic simplicity of Porro design.
In a pathway flooded with light and marked by full-height and full-length volumes and moving partitions, Porro reveals its own world, in which the company’s systems - true complex yet flexible architectures - design spaces in an original way, engaging in a dialogue with product collections: objects characterised by pure geometric shapes, technological details, research into materials and finishes, signed by prominent designers such as Piero Lissoni, Christophe Pillet, GamFratesi, Werner Aisslinger and Nao Tamura.
In the first double-height dining area, the sculptural shapes of Piero Lissoni’s Materic Ovale table, in its new bruno tinted ash finish, capture attention for the unprecedented deep brown and black nuances, highlighting once again the material research and tactile poetry of this product. The Nid chairs by Christophe Pillet, with their softly padded natural ash shell and the warmth of the 4 legs in solid wood in the same finishing, complete the setting in a dialogue between design and craftsmanship, merging harmony and gentleness.
In the living area, on the wall, the System bookcase designed by Piero Lissoni + CRS Porro has been completely rethought, generating the new System HT compositions: the traditional side-panel design achieves a visually lighter look by emphasizing long, horizontal glossy metallizzato moka shelves with a thickness of 40mm. They are supported by slim metal uprights in the moka colour and by a play of wooden vertical partitions in canaletto walnut to which a drop leaf door element in the new meltallizzato moka and the canaletto mix backdrop are added. The result is a checkerboard pattern with evocative effects of light and shadow, further enhanced by integrated ambient lighting.
With its minimalist geometry and pop art influence, juxtaposing brutalist architecture and the comfort of a soft cushion, the Origata bench by Nao Tamura in blue denim is a three-dimensional sculpture that plays with symmetry, balance and the expressive power of colour, offering a new vantage point on Porro’s home.
The entrance to the wardrobe area is marked by the Quilt fabric-covered metal bench by Werner Aisslinger provides a waiting seat: the imposing ground support bracket makes the suspended metal structure perceptible, invisible under the white quilted covering that envelops it like a blanket, generating new soft landscapes to be interpreted with colors.
The bedroom is revamped by the essential intimacy of the Iro bed by GamFratesi, simple and sophisticated, featuring two large headboard cushions and a thick frame - 80 mm diameter - in solid turned natural ash wood, which stands out for the detail of the corner joint in the support, evoking the wooden houses of the Alps as well as the Japanese joints used to support tree branches.
Going up to the mezzanine floor, in the dining room/office overlooking Via Ronchetti, the new Ventiquattro table by Piero Lissoni captures attention for the boldness of its extreme reduction - the rectangular transparent glass top with bevelled edges that reveals the azuki painted tubular metal frame in stainless steel. In the Sixte chair by Christophe Pillet the curved tubular steel slide creates a continuous design in space, accommodating the two thickly padded curved cushions of the seat and backrest, covered in leather, with visible bespoke stitching.
The tour ends in the very heart of Porro’s home - the wardrobe, the quintessence of the brand’s customisation capabilities.
The Storage corner dressing room, designed by Piero Lissoni + Centro Ricerche Porro, features transparent compartments, completely open or enclosed by glass doors, alongside spaces closed by the new Portrait doors in rope-coloured fabric.
Even the objects that populate the space are unique pieces in harmony with Porro’s design and reflecting the philosophy of the company - on the one hand the concept of research and on the other the purity of form - by establishing collaborations with typically Milanese companies, but not only.
Porro Milano, Via Visconti di Modrone 29, Milan. Tel. +39 02 76394408 porromilano@porro.com
Photo: © Marco Brienza / Sfelab
