Zanotta Fall Sale

Martino Zanotta's Lecture at CCA and Dinner at DZINE

Last week was very inspiring and educational with Martino Zanotta, the President and CEO of Zanotta SpA, in town. He arrived in San Francisco last Wednesday to give a lecture at California College of the Arts, coordinated by the school's furniture program and DZINE.

With an audience of over 120 design enthusiasts and professionals, Martino Zanotta shared the story of the company which was founded in 1954 by his father, Aurelio Zanotta. A video presented the long history of Zanotta and included interviews with a number of design icons, such as Enzo Mari, Gae Aulenti and Achille Castiglioni. The new breed of designers collaborating with Zanotta, such as Damien Williamson and Noe Duchaufour Lawrance, was also given time on the video to share their unique stories behind the products. Zanotta, unlike many other furniture manufacturers, never focused on just one vision or one designer. Instead, Aurelio looked to produce an eclectic collection of pieces, and always felt his company to be a design company, rather than only a manufacturer. Zanotta has been the leader in furniture design because of it's innovation and use of materials, as it has never stopped questioning design and has resulted in many breakthrough pieces. The ‘Throw-Away’ was the first all foam sofa and the most well-known 'Sacco', developed over 40 years ago, was the very first bean bag chair, symbolizing freedom and nonconformity. Pieces from Zanotta’s collection are held in numerous museums around the world. Many of Zanotta's products are often duplicated, but this only reinforces the significance of the original design.

Today, the company is still run by the Zanotta family and from the way that Martino speaks about it, is likely to stay that way. Zanotta’s vision began with Aurelio Zanotta and continues with the next generation and partnerships with new designers.

Following his presentation Martino opened up the floor for Q&A, where he was able to touch upon topics of sustainability, company direction, relationship between manufacturer and designer, the future of design, and advances in technology.

The following evening, Martino Zanotta joined DZINE for an intimate dinner in his honor. About 25 guests were given the unique opportunity to mingle and dine with Martino, as well as a personal tour through each of the pieces displayed at DZINE.

Lecture with Martino Zanotta-September 22, 2010 at CCA 7pm

This coming Wednesday, September 22, California College of the Arts' Furniture Program and DZINE will be hosting an evening with Martino Zanotta, the President and CEO of Zanotta SpA. For over 50 years Zanotta has collaborated with internationally famed designers and architects from all over the world and produced many influential pieces. This night will be truly inspiring and should not be missed. For more information please visit the CCA website.

http://www.cca.edu/calendar/2010/lecture-martino-zanotta

DZINE is proud to be the exclusive dealer for the Zanotta collection. You are welcome to stop by and see many pieces from their extensive collection including classic designs by Achille Castiglioni, Carlo Mollino, and Superstudio.

Mezzadro designed by Achille Castiglioni

 

Maggiolina designed by Marco Zanuso

Tempo table designed by Prospero Rasulo

Derby designed by Noe Duchafour Lawrence

Gilda designed by Carlo Mollino 

Tod table designed by Tod Bracher

 

Canaletto table designed by Emaf Progetti

We have also added a few new pieces to our Zanotta display.

The William is a new collection by British designer Damian Williamson. It responds to two basic needs: the sense of touch and proportion. The design of the William stems from the idea of deconstructing the sofa into "comfort layers", not just visually but also in practice, beginning from the structural bottom layer, moving up to the central layer of polyurethane foam and finally to the soft top layer made of goose down. The resulting three layers provide a unique and inviting detail, as they seem to be floating atop die-cast aluminum legs. The William was presented at the Milan Furniture Fair this past April and is already a success. Included in the collection are sofas, an armchair, ottoman, and day bed.

The William with the Tod side table

The Sacco, designed over 40 years ago by 3 architects from Turin, Giatti, Cesare Paolini, and Franco Teodoro, is truly an iconic piece. It has received several international awards, was exhibited in 1972 at the MOMA in New York, and today is part of the permanent collection of 26 international museums. While there have been many imitators over the years, there is only one original and authentic Sacco.

Our newest Sacco

The Lia/Lio collection has been a popular staple in the DZINE showroom, thanks to its stylish yet comfortable design. Designed by Roberto Barbieri, the collection was a remarkable innovation in chair design, reducing the construction to a simple aluminum frame with a removable cover. Our newest additions include Lia dining chairs and Lio bar stools, part of the complete collection of 9 chairs and stools.

Martino Zanotta awarded Gold Medal for "Industrial Merit"

Martino Zanotta, the President and CEO of Zanotta SpA, was awarded the Gold Medal for Industrial Merit.  The award was presented by Confindustria Monza and Brianza last October at the closing ceremony of the Association's annual assembly at the Formula One Racetrack of Monza. Martino received this award as "recognition of the intense and constant activity dedicated to the development of the business"-founded by his father Aurelio in 1954-which today confirmed a long entrepreneurial tradition in industrial design. The award was presented before the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, the National President of Confindustria, Emma Marcegaglia, and the President of Confindustria Monza and Brianza, Renato Cerioli.















Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, Martino Zanotta, National President of Confindustria, Emma Marcegaglia, and President of Confindustria Monza and Brianza, Renato Cerioli.

Victor Carrasco visits DZINE

For the past 10 years spanish born Victor Carrasco has been in collaboration with many prestigious companies such as Boffi, Glas Italia, Coalesse (Steelcase group), Gandia Blasco, and Hodema. He is the founder and the creative and strategic director of a contemporary furniture company, Viccarbe. He has worked with multiple internationally recognized designers like Patricia Urquiola, Jean-Marie Massaud, Arik Levy, and Jeffrey Bernett.

In 2009 Victor designed the VOL sink for Boffi. The Vol is based on a sculpture by Victor that he wanted to turn in to a sink for his home, he showed it to Boffi and the rest is history. Victor always creates functional pieces with great elegance and strong personality.

For Glas Italia he designed the Trim collection a group of bridge shaped low tables with irregular shapes and special faceted grindings of the glass, in clear or black glass.

Victor is a good friend and fan of ours and on August 10th he visited DZINE and signed the Trim table we have on display.

Pied-a-terre by day, dance party by night

by Zahid Sardar for the San Francisco Chronicle.

San Francisco's new Mint Plaza is a symbol of urbanity. It is studded with the Old Mint, a venerable 1870s Greek revival stone building with vestiges of its Gold Rush past, and surrounded by frayed single-room- occupancy buildings, elegant cafes, restaurants and chic, revamped live/work lofts in 16-story buildings. That was exactly what attracted a pair of young men from the Peninsula who live amid suburban homogeneity, although one of them works at Google's hip headquarters, to buy a penthouse pied-a-terre on the plaza.

"They wanted something unique, like a nightclub of their own," says Nicole Hollis, the San Francisco interior designer who helped them find their dream loft in a 1920s 10-story steel-and-concrete building. The 2,000-square-foot loft also has a rooftop garden.

Hollis has known the couple since 2005 when she decorated a smaller flat for them in Mountain View and remembered their penchant for glamour and fashion.

"We had to think of Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci and Tom Ford rolled into one," she said.

To unify that vision, Hollis coordinated details with project architect Ian Birchall, lighting consultants at Lumatech (who worked on the San Francisco nightclub Ruby Skye) and landscape design firm Living Green. They created a bespoke two-bedroom home that morphs with push-button speed into a full-fledged nightclub replete with a mist machine, disco ball, video projections and surround sound. The owners can fill it almost as quickly with friends who get invited via text messages.

The bare-bones standard condominium was stripped to its steel and concrete shell and Hollis restored a minimum of partitions to form two bathrooms, a private study and guest room. The slope of a ramped L-shape entryway is now barely discernible. Lightweight walk-through aluminum chain-link curtains and see-through glass walls divide the remaining space.

"We needed some surfaces to project images into the middle of the space and chain link was better than wood or steel-beaded curtains for that," Hollis said.

Guests can dance in the living room under strobe lights (hidden above retractable ceiling panels), swill at the backlit bar that has a cascading fountain as its backdrop, or go up Birchall's showy white Corian staircase to the roof garden.

A Boffi kitchen and modern furnishing from Dzine, a crisp steel storage wall that conceals audio/visual equipment and a flat-screen TV add polished counterpoints to raw concrete left exposed in several areas of the loft.

Because the furniture is deliberately low, the party loft seems larger than it is.

When parties swell to larger numbers, revelers can spread upstairs to the roof deck where Hollis has supplied a stainless steel barbecue and more seating alongside Paola Lenti ottomans on an artificial-turf carpet.

Hollis and project designer Edward Ngiam were not allowed to change any part of the historic shell or add or alter windows. During the day the natural colors of concrete, wood, brick and black lacquer cabinetry make this a relaxed setting to enjoy daylight and south- and west-facing views, but at night, as if to compete with showy sunsets, Hollis used a basic trick: colored lights (a la artist James Turrell) that dim and change from blue to red to pink to create the illusion of sunsets within the mostly white space.

"At night," Hollis said, "even the kitchen island seems to change color."

Sella, an Example of Timeless Design

On June 29, the permanent exhibition “Sitzkultur: die Geschichte des Sitzens” (Seating culture: the history of the seat) opened, organized at the Lippisches Landesmuseum, Detmold, Germany, with the cooperation of the University of Ostwestfalen-Lippe. The exhibition aims at presenting a heterogeneous furniture collection including about 170 pieces from 1850 to the present, designed by the major designers in the world.

Zanotta is pleased to announce that the Sella seat, designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni in 1957, still in their collection has been selected to participate in this event as an example of timeless design.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Come visit DZINE today to see the Sella seat in our showroom.