With its essential shapes and gentle, sinuous sense of movement, Wave suggests a renewed, more conscious focus on the ritual of arriving home.
The project reinterprets a quintessential piece of Asian furniture: the shoe bench.
Its humble function as a furnishing complement is ennobled and transformed into a welcoming element, suitable for gracing even the most sophisticated of interiors. It’s part of De Castelli’s project “Copper at Home: new behavior, new objects”
The micro architecture, designed with simple, flowing forms, is produced using solid natural copper which plays with curves, solids, and voids.
The vertical wave-shaped wall in perforated copper lends lightness to the volume and adds a touch of refinement to the sculptural form, accompanying those who enter; the wave form serves to underline the presence of the “pocket emptier” plate, inviting us to empty our pockets as we come home.
The upper surface provides ample space to sit down while removing clothing, while the base provides storage space for bags and shoes.
Natural copper, free of surface treatment, becomes a living material that changes over time and acquires a range of hews caused by differing rates of oxidation: it remains brighter in areas where there is more frequent contact, thus emphasising the routines of those who use it every day.
Wave won the: Archiproducts® Design Award 2021.
More information at www.decastelli.it .
COPPER AT HOME: NEW BEHAVIOUR, NEW OBJECTS
The new De Castelli project is dedicated to the home.
The home because, in just a short space of time, we’ve found ourselves having to deal with new ways of living and interacting with the outside world, and we’ve had to rapidly adapt both the way we behave and our needs.
The home because we all wish to furnish the places we live in and share with our loved ones with products which are both beautiful and useful as well as safe and healthy.
Identifying these themes, De Castelli has teamed up with 4 pairs of designers – Adriano Design, Lanzavecchia + Wai, Martinelli Venezia Studio and Zanellato/Bortotto, – who have devised a new form of artistic expression working exclusively with copper, one of De Castelli’s signature metals. The decision to use copper was made to exploit its antibacterial properties, and these have been maintained thanks to the research conducted by the company that
ensures it can be processed and used for interiors without altering the intrinsic effectiveness of the material.
Being careful about the things we carry with us, adopting precise patterns of behaviour, more conscious routines, and a different approach to leisure time – these are some of the habits that make up a ‘new normal’, and which have prompted entirely new design projects for interiors.
Thus, entrance hall furniture, a bar cabinet, a games table or complementary furniture becomes precious and takes centre stage in our day-to-day activities, with a renewed, modernised role, and a perspective which re-centres our attention on the home and the time we spend there.
And the natural beauty of copper returns to prominence: left free from any protective surface treatments, it’s transformed into a living material, which varies over time, in concert with the people using the objects.
