area 121 – industrial building

        presentazione/introduction Transformable objects: design in motion testo Laura Andreini editoriale/editorial In the beginning was… the pivot (or the genealogical tree of all mechanisms) testo Vittorio Marchis oggetti/objects…

This issue of Area titled ‘Ouverture 2012 – design on/off’ is the testimonial of a long research project which is also the subject of the homonymous exhibition organized in Milan…

“For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s and he hath set the world upon them.” (Samuel, 2:8) The place from which Archimedes meant it would be possible to…

Piana is a nesting folding chair made in 100% recyclable polypropylene that is suited to any area of the house both indoors and outdoors. The design takes full advantage of a…

Cóm-oda is a set of folding chairs, which double as a side table when not in use. We wanted to breath new life into folding furniture that spends most of its…

Dilly-Dally is a cylindrical furniture item formed of a table with container combined with an armchair covered in calf hide. The top with a tilting mirror is mounted on a…

We like to introduce FLKS (flex) a flexible workplace. Just open the panels unfold the table and the chair and put the plug in for light. The legs from the table and…

In the hustle and bustle of the modern office, everyone tries to divide their time as flexibly as possible. Globus is a mobile work station (fl existation) in two guises. In…

Two armchairs, one sofa, a sheltered bed but also a proto-living room. Sosia is all those things and even more. A mutant object, dynamic and snug, ready to fit with different everyday life…

Het Kruikantoor – this name is a combination of the words wheelbarrow and office. All interior elements can be combined, to which the object can be moved easily. ˝kruikantoor˝ is a portable…

Soaring property prices and lack of available space are causing more and more people to seek alternatives to owning their own home in the city. By creating an enclosed space…

Multilayer structure with a naturally coloured birch wood veneer. External side supports in cobalt blue and with the metalsheeted central element powder-varnished in cobalt blue. In-canto is almost magical. In-canto is…

REK is a bookcase that grows with your book collection. The more books the bigger the bookcase gets. The zigzag shaped parts slide in and out to accomodate books in…

The mobile Scaletta Bar, designed in ‘72 by Luigi Caccia Dominioni, glossy black lacquered wood, consists of two doors, shelves inside covered with plastic laminate, stainless steel inserts. Precious in…

It is more than a multipurpose object; it is something that has, like many of us, a double soul. It normally appears as a wooden monolith without any grips or…

Celato, or concealed, hidden, secret. Different personalities: a menhir, a safe, a skyscraper: an object that reveals its function, touch by touch. Celato is a furniture item with drawers containing many…

Inspired by ice crevasse – its simplicity, elegance, naturally broken homogeneity. My bathroom and kitchen sink mixers have cuboid shape cut by three at an angle of 60, which creates three triangles (30*-90*-60*). First triangle is used to…

The Downdraft cooker hood by KitchenAid has been ideated to give a breath of fresh air to passion and creativity in the kitchen. Characterized by a powerful motor with an extraction capacity of 900 m3/h and electronic precision…

You are holding the result of a dream pursued with great passion, a dream called Ave Touch. Ave Touch represents a new way of thinking the light. We have imagined the objects which make the electrical system,…

Boxetti Lunch is a multifunctional kitchen island unit containing all the necessary kitchen equipment. The unit has an automatic sliding surface uncovering a built-in sink with a tap. The sliding surface is equipped with a safety…

It was in 1963 that Joe Colombo, with the vision of the prophets, imagined a minikitchen which in half a cubic metre could contain all the indispensable functions: preservation, washing, cooking, food storage and so on, even for…

Cubolucecromo will surprise you with its unmistakable character. The chromed surfaces have a mirrored effect that generates a visual guessing game. The cube reflects objects near it, so that its…

The heat of the bulb makes this shape-memory alloy lamp ‘bloom‘ whenever the light is turned on. Hanabi, the Japanese word for fireworks, literally means ‘flower + fire‘. Both flowers…

The BE Light, is an LED desk lamp that folds and sports a unique articulated design. With its clever hinge design, it can be fully extended to a height of…

“Il Canif”, French for pencil sharpener, is a tiny and very beautiful folding name. The name comes from the fact that it was originally used to sharpen cane, or reed…

Known all over the world as the Brionvega “cube“, the TS522 radio receiver is expression of a unique and distinctive construction philosophy, based on reliability, easy use, duration and beauty,…

Leon-Claude Duhamel observes attentively as people rush by in soaking wet clothes. It is on this day that K-Way is born: a lightweight completely waterproof jacket folded in a small hip…

In 2008, Ofess introduced an iconic product to market for rainy day items – a bottle shaped umbrella. The successful mix of functions, surprise & humor brought the conventional umbrella…

This highly functional stepladder with a very distinctive personality is an excellent combination of form and function. Its unique design is partly due to the technology used by Kartell, that…

1. Pliers 2. Screwdriver 2 mm 3. Screwdriver 3 mm 4. Wire-cutter for wire up to a hardness of 40 HRc 5. Screwdriver 5 mm 6. Cap-remover 7. Screwdriver 7,5 mm 8….

An integrated system of rucksack and scooter. Uphill you can climb unrestricted with free hands and senses in touch with nature, then swoosh back down to valley level either standing…

The canvas hood makes the new MINI Cabrio one of the very few true cabriolet cars, in the most genuine sense of the term, the ones aficionados of open-air driving…

In the Bible the words “door” and “gate” appear 591 times while in the Aeneid there are only 5 references to “doors” (ianua). Virgil’s poem is actually the story of…

“One always thinks that a film-maker deals with images, but my work is more similar to that of a sculptor, because I am dealing with time and a movie is…

By virtue of its nature the industrial building is considered an essential part of the production cycle; in fact, it is one of the few building types whose value is…

AEG’s Turbine factory, Alfeld on the Leine,  by Peter Behrens,  1908-1909 – photo by Roland Halbe According to the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of architecture and town planning edited by Paolo Portoghesi,…

In 2004 Perfetti van Melle, an important Italian private capital corporation and one of the world’s leading chewing gum and candy manufacturers, decided to expand its first historical plant in…

The concept of the new headquarters of Metal Foundation, in Aviles, was born in the first visit and from the memory of the place. The slabs parks of the factory…

Driving along the provincial road from Udine to Spilimbergo, one comes across an architecture that immediately catches the eye by virtue of its architectural quality. It is the new administrative…

The main intention of the design for Nestle factory‘s visiting areas was to create a landmark in the generic landscape of the highway that connects São Paulo and Rio de…

The project is located in a strategic industrial area, well connected with the main highway which bring traffic from the north to the south part of Italy. The site area…

A technological and pragmatic space in the same place. A building which explores sustainable technological connections between the most efficient shape, comfort and rapid qualities, reversible and functional construction. The headquarters,…

The owners proposed us with to act in an old concrete factory, which was fully operative and met all legal requirements, in order to improve the exploitation in production, enviromental…

The Oliveira da Serra Mill intends to be the reference of a new era for olive oil in Portugal. It is both a symbolic and functional building that represents the…

The Technology Park is a center of high technology industries turning 25 years in 2010. For the last phase of its industrial growth, it has been decided to build two…

The Waste Treatment Facility is located on a hillside overlooking the Coll Cardús massif in the municipality of Vacarisses, in the district of the Vallès Occidental. This site is currently…

The urban refuse plant is a clean building, capable of coexisting with the rest of the city; it is not a structure that has to be hidden at all costs,…

The Chilean Patagonia, both continental an insular, realizes the same peculiarity, distinctive and of the place: the detachment. There is disunity, separation of what had been united; the elements live…

Hogdgon Powder is a gunpowder manufacturing plant located in the Flint Hills of Central Kansas, a region containing the last remaining indigenous tall grass prairies in the Midwest. The plant…

In July of 2006, this project was announced as the winner of an architectural contest looking for a design proposal of the “skin” for a technical building containing a self…

At the intersection of highways and canals – at the edge of the old town – in the center of the destroyed city, a new hearts starts beating. Power and heat…

When the social scientist begins to explore the contemporary discourse by focusing on the field of architecture, he is immediately intrigued by its general structure. Architecture is almost always conceived,…

Albano Guatti was born in Udine, Italy, in 1950. He graduated at the University of Florence where he studied Aesthetic with Ermanno Migliorini and thought as an assistent. He is a freelance…