Maestro, the Technology that Makes Stoves Become Digital
The Maestro system adds to MCZ stoves remote management, remote diagnostics and heat optimization in every room of the house
In the field of stoves and fireplaces, MCZ is the brand that has been paying more attention to innovation, launching a long series of patents and innovative technologies.
The mission of the company is to make the life of the final user easier, optimizing the performance of the product for an increasingly clean and efficient combustion.Their latest accomplishment is Maestro, an innovative technology that allows the stove to fulfill its maximum potential, being even easier and more intuitive to use.
An authentic integrated micro-computer communicates with the smartphone. Thanks to the intuitive App (provided by MCZ), the stove may be switched on (or off) even at a distance, also while coming back home after a day of work. Everything is under control, from the ideal temperature to the setting of the flame. In this way, you will not have to give up the pleasure of finding a warm and welcoming environment even in the coldest days, avoiding to leave the heating on unnecessarily. In addition to the App, you can also have a digital panel and a remote control.
If great savings on consumption and a combustion able to generate less ash and leave the glass clean were not enough, Maestro will convince you with another surprising feature. Thanks to a Wi-Fi probe with automatic connection that can be placed in any room of the house, the smart stove will adjust itself to reach the desired temperature exactly where you want.
[Giuseppe D’Orsi]
OSSERVATORIO - Cantiere Galli Design
In Rome, Cantiere Galli Design lets creative talents and local ateliers express themselves, starting with artistic ceramics and lamps between memory and experimentation
Cantiere Galli Design has inaugurated ‘Osservatorio’ to give voice to emerging designers in Rome. The cultural show, conceived with Domitilla Dardi, includes three different events throughout 2018 in which brilliant designers are asked to create, inside the Cantiere (via Antonio Pacinotti 63 – near the gasometer), a site-specific installation that shows the audience the philosophy and the concepts underlying their work. Osservatorio intends to offer a proactive and close look at the design culture of Rome and its surroundings, mixing history and memory with innovation and experimentation.
‘Lasciare tracce’, the first event of the festival, features the fascinating ceramics created by Coralla Maiuri and Sabina Belfiore Lucovich’s spectacular lamps.
A rectangular table set with ceramics and table sets by Coralla Maiuri enriches the central corridor of Cantiere Galli Design. Her collections inspired by Renaissance and Baroque art, and the mastery of Italian craftsmanship, are characterized by a great sensitivity and transform dishes, bowls, cups, vases, sculptures and jars into small unique universes.
The left corridor, on the other hand, hosts the evocative lamps created by Sabina Belfiore Lucovich, an expressive study on light in which minimal, ethereal, hypnotic and silent forms, hand-made with pure copper and micro LEDs, recall the lights of local festivals in southern Italy.
[Text Chiara Sgreccia - Photo Silvana Spera]
Control Energy Consumption with Colors
With a change in color, DiCE, IOT device, indicates how much electricity is being used: an invitation to aware energy consumption
DiCE by ABenergie is the new IOT (Internet of Things) system, able to promote a new energy culture, helping reduce consumption thanks to increased awareness.
DiCE, the Easy Play tool, helps control energy consumption habits through colors: a design fixture varies from blue to flashing red, passing through green and violet, thus signaling, at the touch of a hand, the amount of energy consumed; the DiReader device reads the power consumption and transmits it to the DiCE app thanks to another device, DiGateway. The application for iOS and Android makes it easier to monitor one’s habits and provides tips and suggestions on the energy used.
Marco Acerbis, designing DiCE for ABenergie, producer and supplier of electricity and natural gas in Italy, has thought of a simple tool, with a very small size, captivating and user-friendly. Its pyramidal shape with rounded edges favors interaction with the user, inviting him/her to use it to control consumption. Exactly for this reason, DiCE was selected for the 2017 ADI Design Index 2017. [Text Giulia Bruno]
Smeg and Dolce&Gabbana: Sicily is my love
Large and small appliances are dressed in Sicilian folklore in the Sicily is my love collection designed for Smeg by the fashion brand
Among the many new appliances presented by Smeg at the Salone del Mobile di Milano 2018, in the FTK area and at the Fuorisalone, the original Sicily is my love collection stood out for its colors and original style, the result of the partnership between the technological experience of the Emilia-based company and the creative spirit of Dolce & Gabbana.
Exhibited at the former Metropol cinema, on Viale Piave, Milan, home to the great events by D&G, refrigerators, ovens, hoods looked like art objects, telling their Sicilian roots. Bright red and orange host gold lemons, green prickly pears, bright red cherries; blue and white are dedicated to majolica from Caltagirone, pictures of Mt Etna, ruins of the Valley of the Temples.
The series of small appliances Sicily is my love includes American coffee machine, hand blender, four-compartment toaster, decorated with the reproduction of a first prototype painted by Sicilian artisans. Coming soon: blender, espresso coffee machine, stand mixer, slow juicer and four-slice toaster.
A New Exhibition Space for High-End Italian Products in China
The partnership between FLA Eventi and iADC, the exhibition center whose opening is scheduled for November 2018, will strengthen the presence of Italian furniture in China
On the occasion of the Salone del Mobile 2018, an important partnership between Federlegno Arredo Eventi and the International Art Design Center (iADC) of Shenzhen – the over 1.5 million sq m exhibition center that is to become a reference point and a showcase for Italian design and furniture in Southern China – was signed.
This exhibition space will allow the over 40 high and medium end brands taking part in the project to acquire visibility on the Chinese market and contribute to enhancing the perception of Italian products in that area.
This is a significant undertaking since China represents an extremely important market for Italian furniture.
The cooperation between FLA Eventi and iADC will enable the exchange of information concerning the performances of the furniture sector, will make it possible to enhance the communication between Italian companies and Chinese operators and to organize meetings between industrial and institutional delegations. The next appointment is scheduled for November 2018, when the exhibition center of Shenzhen will be inaugurated. [Annamaria Maffina]
When the Bathroom is Good Design
Daniel Debiasi and Federico Sandri talk about their products for the bathroom, manufactured by international brands and sharing a rare balance between aesthetics and function
Round trays on a metal sculpture-like structure that also acts as towel rail. A constant play with curves and precise proportions gives the objects an unexpected personality. This is Bivio, the line designed by Daniel Debiasi and Federico Sandri for Inbani: a family of bathroom complements characterized by simple and familiar shapes combined in a new way. For the Spanish brand the two designers, who collaborated with international furniture firms such as Lema, Ligne Roset, Normann Copenhagen, have also created the Tray series.
“For both projects, our starting point was the need to create some accessories for a freestanding bathroom. Tray is a system of solid wood tables, with a metal frame and a rail where it is possible to hang towels or other accessories. Bivio, on the contrary, is a more ethereal and sculpture-like project. In this system, white solid surface tops are supported by a metal tube that bents to form a towel rack. In this case, we played a lot with proportions and with ‘that only curve’ to give these products a personality.”
After the success of ViClean-L, a collection of electronic bidets inspired by nature’s simplicity, produced by Villeroy & Boch in 2013, Studio Debiasi Sandri designed for the German brand Squaro Infinity, a collection of shower trays that won the IF Design Award 2016. Its main characteristic is being flush-to-floor, with smooth non-slip surface slightly inclined towards the drain. The latter, characterized by considerable size and refined design, along with the thin chrome bar, make the bathroom more precious, easy to access and clean. The shower trays, which can be made-to-measure, allow for endless bespoke solutions and are available in neutral colors.
Another must-have for the bathroom is Dafne: the compact and comfortable tub produced by Antoniolupi, made of solid surface. Here Daniel Debiasi and Federico Sandri’s design is charged with a natural beauty that can be felt both in the creative process and in the final composition. The basin of the tub, created by curved lines and rounded surfaces, with its thin edge, is raised on one side to accommodate the shoulders. The combination is the result of a controlled geometry that evokes tranquility and relaxation. [Text Elviro Di Meo]
For further information, you can read ‘Omnivorous Design’ by Elviro Di Meo, DDB#86.
Venice Biennale 2018: Great Britain
Special mention to Great Britain for the courage to leave the pavilion empty and usable, with a roof terrace overlooking the lagoon
“A courageous proposal that uses emptiness to create a ‘free space’ for events and informal appropriations,” this is the reason why the international Jury of the Biennale gave the special mention to British National Participation.
The building, completely empty inside, is covered with scaffolding supporting a wooden platform at roof-level used as a panoramic terrace from which it is possible to enjoy the view of the Giardini and the lagoon. A new public space conceived as a sort of island that leaves room for imagination and creativity suggesting free interpretations of different themes, such as climate change, colonialism, Brexit.
[Text: Arianna Callocchia]
#Youngtalents: Patricia Adler
WILD AT HAT founded by Patricia Adler, takes the freedom to approach the creation of a hat as an open challenge
Founded in 2016, Bremen by hat artist Patricia Adler, WILD AT HAT takes the freedom to approach the creation of a hat as an open challenge because it just has to fit on a head and as long as it gets through a door – no matter how – everything can be a hat.
Working in the spaces between art and fashion design, Patricia Adler uses a broad variety of materials, everything from classic millinery materials up to boatbuilding supplies. CREATURES collection is a sculptural homage to the British painter Francis Bacon: the hats are inspired by the emotions of the fiends and are executed in white Limoges porcelain. It is fragile and massive, soft and sharp-edged at the same time.
DRUMHATS TAKE II collection is a pure upcycling project for music lovers. The hats are made of shredded drum parts, old busted hats and shabby leather clothes from the 70ies, 80ies and 90ies. The silhouettes, the character of the surfaces and the arrangement of the materials – everything influenced the designs. Photo: Urs Siedentop. [Annamaria Maffina]
www.wildathat.com
VIEW.S Zara: Fashion Teams up with Design Schools
The first special VIEW.S collection was launched in June 2018 by Zara, thus giving voice to young international creative talents.
The VIEW.S project started in Japan at the Bunka Gakuen University, a design school located in Tokyo, in the heart of the Shinjuku district, whose curricula revolve around three key words: internationalization, creativity and innovation.
The collection, created in close collaboration with Zara Man, will be available at www.zara.com and will consist of 15 items, including jackets, shirts, trousers and t-shirts.
The finalists, selected from all the students who took part in the project, are Scott James Marsh, Margaux Gilbert, Viktoria-Helena Binger, Yunome Arashi, Kudo Yuya. [Valentina Dalla Costa]
(Nearly) Zero-Energy Holiday Home
In Liguria, the renovation of a dilapidated building resulted in a cozy nearly zero-energy house, cool in summer and warm in winter
Surrounded by the silvery green of Ligurian olive trees, Casa G is an example of a building based on the principles of bioarchitecture. In Littorno, hamlet of Moneglia, Liguria di Levante (Italy), Tiziana Monterisi Architetto is the author of the renovation project of a 19th century dilapidated building that was turned into a holiday home characterized by minimal environmental impact and very low maintenance costs.
Rice straw, clay, opus signinum, wood treated with natural oils, paints made from plants, triple glazed windows with two spacers were used to achieve the excellent energy performance of Casa G, in which the passive solar contribution is used for heating in winter.
As to the interiors, architect Monterisi paid particular attention to colors, combining green and orange as a clear reference to the shades of olive trees and nets used for the olive harvest.
The house is cool in summer thanks to the excellent natural ventilation typical of the hilly landscape, humidity levels
are regulated by interior clay plasters and, if in winter it is too cold, a small wood-burning stove will complement the passive solar inputs. [Text Giulia Bruno]
