Calvi Brambilla and Partners is a multidisciplinary studio specialising in Art Direction, exhibition design, interior design and product design. A space conceived not only to display but also to engage, a stage capable of enhancing while at the same time remaining one step behind, with coherence and consistency over time. Because technology, too, thrives on sensations and emotions in order to reveal itself. Otherwise, it is merely a cold sequence of technical manual instructions…This is the design philosophy that drives the installations created by Calvi and Brambilla.
"YOU HAVE TO START
FROM FUNCTION AS A
SOURCE OF EMOTION:
ONLY THEN DOES
TECHNOLOGY ALLOW
YOU TO BREATHE
MORE EASILY,
REMOVE A WORRY,
TRANSFORM EFFORT
INTO LIGHTNESS"
What does designing a product display involve? What aspects must be taken into account, and where can mistakes occur?
Displaying a product means creating a setting in which the object can finally speak. It is not about dressing it in effects, but about building the right silence around it. There is light, which is a kind of secret language: it brings out the grain, gives depth to a surface, adds weight or lightness.
There is the rhythm of the journey, because an installation works when it guides without imposing, creating pauses, invitations, small moments of discovery. Mistakes almost always arise from the same misunderstanding: if the backdrop is the star of the show, the product disappears.
Is designing a showroom different? What dynamics must the concept of a retail space take into account?
A temporary installation lives in the realm of the ephemeral and therefore has the right to raise its voice: it captures the gaze in a few seconds, condenses a message, creates an emotional peak and then disappears. A showroom, by contrast, is permanent: it does not need to astonish every time, it must endure. For this reason, it is quieter and more precise, working through proportions, light, rhythm and materials that age well. In practical terms, a showroom concept takes permanence into account and constructs a backdrop coherent with the company’s image, within which the product can change, season after season.
Your design projects also include many installations for home appliance brands. Is it difficult to present a product that is so technical? How can its technological value be conveyed beyond the aesthetic aspect?
The risk is that you present technology as a list of performances: cold, self-referential technical qualities and nothing more. The best solution, though, is to begin with function: an appliance has value when its technology becomes care for everyday life, time saved, simpler gestures, a better quality of life at home. It is the satisfaction of a gesture well accomplished, the reassurance of knowing that everything works, the pleasure of a home that is quieter, cleaner, more precise. In installations, we try to make these sensations perceptible even before the specifications, because the true value lies not in the technology itself, but in what it makes you feel every day.
What are your collaborations at this year’s Salone?
We are very proud to continue our collaboration with Elica, for whom we curate a particularly rich and innovation-filled exhibition stand. This year, we also collaborate with an excellence brand from the other side of the world: Fisher & Paykel. During Design Week, we also are responsible for installations for Zanotta, Unopiù, Dooor and other furnishing brands.
