The first European showroom of Signature Kitchen Suite is a succession of highly iconic kitchen environments, with references to contemporary art and great classics of Milanese design. The interview.
Signature Kitchen Suite, the household appliance brand of the Korean LG group, inaugurates a large 1100 m2 exhibition space in the heart of Milan, in Piazza Cavour. An attentive interpreter of the lesson of Milaneseness, the Calvi Brambilla studio has divided the space onto three levels through the setting up of distinctly theatrical kitchen corners, in balance between contemporary rarefaction and references to the classics of Italian furniture design. We talk about it with Fabio Calvi, co-founder of the studio with Paolo Brambilla, and Manuela Ricci, marketing director of the brand.
Signature Kitchen Suite opens its first European showroom. Why Milan?
Manuela Ricci: Milan is the international capital of design, architecture and fashion. Our choice was to be in the heart of the city, in a visible street, also to involve citizens through a series of activities and to carry forward a concept of luxury and exclusivity that is still accessible. I believe that the era of hidden showrooms, by appointment, is over: as with the big fashion brands, which have very large and visible spaces, in our case too there is the desire to encourage the public to enter, addressing both the B2B than B2C.
The appliance hides a rather strong technological nature behind a decidedly essential appearance. How do we construct the space and the story of a product if we want it to be so cryptic?
Fabio Calvi: It is told by building stories around it which are abstractions of spaces that we see in the city. The project brief was characterized by a double level: on the one hand the desire for Italianness and to describe Milan through design was underlined, on the other we were asked for a reference to a positive contemporary world. It was LG who provided us with an initial answer: contemporary art. Art is a gym in which we try out experiences, images, it is a small bubble in which we are free to do anything: it is the last true exception in which I believe the embryos of what brings the world forward are expressed. As designers, we had no desire to create contemporary art, but we could however cite it, creating a catchment area and interest in the narrative of the product.
How is the space structured and how is this double reference to art and Milan expressed?
F.C.: On the lower floor we tried to express suggestions linked to the Milanese spirit and the world of design, simulating a series of rooms, each characterized by a specific colour, where some free-standing products from Signature Kitchen Suite and other LG brands were placed such as LG Objet and LG ThinQ™. Working with the color block system allowed us to express a warm environment while giving the rooms an abstract, photographic quality. Furthermore, we have included a selection of furniture designed by Milanese designers – there are the Castiglionis, Vico Magistretti, Angelo Mangiarotti, Franco Albini, Gaetano Pesce – also introducing some non-obvious pieces: an example is the San Carlo armchair by Achille Castiglioni for Driade, now re-edited by Tacchini. On the ground floor, however, we created a very neutral space where we worked on three installations, talking about food and our relationship with food and its preparation, the ritual of cooking, and the fact of working with cold and heat at the same time, two opposite worlds that coexist in the same environment.
How does the space support the True to Food philosophy?
M.R: On the ground floor a show-cooking kitchen visible from the street gives the possibility of cooking and hosting events, marking a continuity between the internal space and the outer one of the city. On the first floor, however, True to Food is expressed with a Food Academy, a real cooking school and more, where we will host some talk and lessons not only on how to cook but also on food, because respect for food down to its essence is our philosophy.
In the last century the kitchen went from a segregated and solitary corner for preparing dishes to the epicenter of the house open to the virtuosity of show cooking. What further scenarios do you foresee taking place?
M.R: What the market tells us is that today the kitchen is increasingly livable, open, adapted to increasingly professional food preparation. The appliances, now visible, become beautiful and take over other spaces, occupying the living room with the wine cellar and gaining their own, such as the laundry room.
F.C.: When I was a child there were these books a somewhat utopian that talked about flying cars and self-cooking chickens. The reality today, however, is far from this imaginary and as designers – being basically small dictators – our task is to put things in order. In the kitchen the risk is that the aesthetics eat away at the functional part: I believe that a kitchen should be designed according to the sequence of gestures and actions in which it is used.
I know it’s very premature, but do you already have plans for the Salone?
M.R.We have confirmed our presence at the fair, the idea is to create a virtual and technological bridge between Rho and the Fuori Salone. We’ll see what happens then: in recent months we have learned to move forward by freeing ourselves from old patterns, such as the opening which must welcome at least 400 people to function. The world changes and requires us to do things differently, but this does not mean stopping. Koreans have a nice expression to describe this attitude: “pole-pole“, which means small but fast steps. This also applies to Signature Kitchen Suite: we move in small steps, but we don’t stop.