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06.21.23

Sighted

This Campaign for a Sailboat-Inspired Sofa Transports You to a 100-Year-Old Sailing School in Venice

The Vela, designed for Saba Italia by Zanellato/Bortotto, is an interesting take on the puffy sofa: It's soft and cushy yet somehow still crisp, with arms that taper to a subtle point and striking diagonal tufting seams that gently reign in its voluminousness. That contrast is intentional, reflecting the inspiration for the sofa, which also lent it its name ("sail" in English): "We both love the sea and have always been fascinated by the unfurled sails blown by the wind near the Venice lagoon," says Daniele Bortotto. For its new campaign, Saba sent photographer Mattia Balsamini to photograph it at the Compagnia della Vela, a nautical school founded in 1911 on the island of San Giorgio.
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10.25.22

From the Archives

Adam Stech on Italian Futurism, Part II: The 1930s Ceramics of Mazzotti and Nikolay Diulgheroff

Like many of the best art movements of the early 1900s, the radical Italian Futurist movement was most-known for two-dimensional works, but encompassed the applied arts as well. One of its more interesting — yet largely forgotten — practitioners was the late designer and artist Nikolay Diulgheroff, for whom ceramics became a medium of dynamic expression for his and the Futurists’ ideas.
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10.24.22

From the Archives

Adam Stech on Italian Futurism, Part I: Tour Four of Italy’s Most Avant-Garde Interiors

In the 1909 manifesto for one of the most controversial avant-garde art movements of the 20th century — Italian Futurism — founder Filippo Tommaso Marinetti confessed his admiration for the modern age and its inventions, for speed, the roar of engines, and the rage of war weapons. The group’s paintings and sculptures attempted to depict the speed and dynamism of the industrial age, but Futurism’s reach also extended to a practice in architecture and interior design, and in the past few years I toured Italy to uncover few of its best spaces.
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10.05.21

Interiors

13 Incredible Mid-Century Lobbies in Turin Featuring Mosaic Walls, Sculptural Murals, and Other Avant-Garde Motifs

During the 1940s and 50s, a group of highly unorthodox and original designers and architects working in Turin, Italy, were known for their organic and sensual forms, their eclectic inspirations and rich decorations, and their utopian ideas — a Turinese avant-garde. Many interiors reflecting this style remain in tact in the city today, including extraordinary artistic entryways which, hidden from public view, reflect the enduring wildness of the city’s architectural elite.
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07.31.20

Eye Candy

These Blocky Pastel Pieces By Studio Nucleo Will Make You Do a Double Take

When we first saw these pieces by the Turin-based collective Studio Nucleo, we thought they were miniatures. Between the pastel colors and the blocky Tetris aesthetic, we understood them, at first, to be maquettes, studies for a larger project. But after looking twice, judging them by the details of the garage they were photographed in (and, more recently, seeing the pieces with a human for scale) we realized they were the real deal — called Primitive, the pieces represent the 10th anniversary of a collection originally created in all white and now re-imagined in color for an ongoing exhibition at Nilufar Gallery in Milan.
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08.28.19

Eye Candy

A Palazzo in Puglia Provides the Perfect Backdrop for These Vintage Rugs

Earlier this spring, T Magazine published a story on a new design hotel located inside a restored 1861 palazzo in the village of Gagliano del Capo, which seemed a perfect encapsulation of everything that's beautiful about Puglia, frescoed ceilings and all. The Australian-based company Tigmi Trading — which sources one-of-a-kind vintage and contemporary Berber rugs from Morocco — seems to have also taken note of the palazzo, which provides the backdrop to their latest collection, Casa D'Arte, in these photos.
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10.18.18

Excerpt: Exhibition

Seven Designers Spent the Summer at an Italian Palazzo. Here Are the Results.

It would be a dream brief in any creative field: Set up shop in a 13th-century palazzo at the foot of the Italian Alps with a group of friends, and see what comes of it. And yet that's exactly what Étage Projects founder Maria Foerlev offered to her stable of designers this summer, inviting seven contemporary design practices to Palazzo Monti, an artist's residency program and creativity incubator.
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09.24.18

Interiors

Luca Guadagnino’s First Interior Design Project is an Ochre Mansion on Lake Como (Because Of Course It Is)

Pretty much every design person we know has been obsessed with the Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino since I Am Love, the Tilda Swinton movie shot primarily on location at the Villa Necchi, a Piero Portaluppi–designed home in the middle of Milan that's something of a design-world touchstone. So it's no surprise that there was a general freakout this weekend when T Magazine published Guadagnino's inaugural experiment in interior design.
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Brutalist-inspire ikebana vases by Studio Testo
06.19.18

Eye Candy

These Brutalist-Inspired Vases Will Up Your Ikebana Game

Last time we featured Studio Testo, we noted Giulia Dolci and Giulia Fauro Alessi’s uncanny ability to make pieces that are on-trend and effortlessly cool. So it comes as no surprise that their latest collection of sculptural vases has a similarly refreshing vibe, taking cues from Brutalist architecture and adding in some ikebana by Irene Cuzzaniti and fresh textiles by AH/OK.
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Maniera Gallery for the Operae design fair
11.07.17

Excerpt: Exhibition

Fake Wood, Real Stone, and Imagined Foam: Our Favorite Collection from the Operae Design Fair

This year's Operae show was curated by Alice Stori Lichtenstein and the fair, always notable for its mix of designers and galleries, featured Sight Unseen favorites like Campbell Rey, Carwan Gallery, and Maniera. It was the latter gallery who hosted our favorite presentation: a series of layered particle-board furniture developed by the Belgium firm aDVVT as well as a newer series called "Light Conversation Pieces," by the Italian architecture firm Piovenefabi.
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