Both a trade show and an art exhibition, 1.618 Paris is the first annual “rendez-vous” of Sustainable Luxury supported by the French Ministry of Culture and the WWF. Open to the public, the event proposes a transverse selection of products and services combining art, creativity, innovation and sustainable development at the service of another Luxury, more ethical. In an innovative and contemporary setting, 1.618 Paris presents works of artists who ponder the issues of Sustainable Development and consumption. Valcucine has been selected among forty brands for its innovative, creative and ethic qualities. Protagonist of Valcucine’s show is the Artematica Vitrum program with Invitrum 100% recyclable glass and aluminum base unit system, suggested in the elegant total white version. A different approach to Sustainable Development that put the consumer in front of a necessary thought: to be consciouse about their choises. An event that join companies having the ethic, the environment, the patrimony, the society and the aestethics as principles to achieve a responsable production and an eco-friendly lifestyle.

After answering the question “What is Italian Design?” with the “Italian Design’s Seven Obsessions” and “Serie Fuori Serie”, from the 27th March 2010 Triennale Design Museum presents  a new interpretation of Italian Design, called “Quali cose siamo” (Which thing we are). Triennale Design Museum expresses once again its dynamic nature, keen on renovation and able to offer its visitors different perpectives. An emotional and involving museum experience, where  Valcucine is going to take part with its kitchen design creations: Artematica Vitrum and Artematica Vitrum Arte.

Valcucine’s collaboration with the Italian artist Ugo Nespolo, whose career dates back to the Sixties to the era of Italian Pop Art to Conceptualists and Future Poverists, is espressed by some artistic collections of kitchen programmes, such a Artematica. On the 27th November, The New York Times published an article about Ugo Nespolo, descibing his works through traditional and modern art. Here below is a part of the original article: The paintings, sculptures and other playful objects raised in the fantastic nursery of Mr. Nespolo’s imagination bring to mind that whole new race of Futurist toys proposed in the “Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe” which, it was envisaged, would not only delight children but also be “very useful to adults, too, keeping them young, agile, joyful, self-assured, ready for anything, indefatigable, instinctive and intuitive.” The authors of this manifesto, published in 1915, were Giacomo Balla and Fortunato Depero, whose works Mr. Nespolo has collected for many years. He is also the owner of around 4,000 manuscripts relating to Depero’s life and works, and the exotic waistcoat, designed by Depero, which Filippo Tomasso Marinetti, the founder of Futurism, can be seen sporting in a famous photograph taken in Turin in 1922. The Futurists hated museums, or at least affected to — Marinetti likened them to cemeteries in the first 1909 Futurist Manifesto — but Mr. Nespolo is an avid enthusiast for them. One favorite, he says, is the Bargello in Florence, which contains some of Italy’s greatest sculptures — from Donatello’s “David” and “St. George” to Michelangelo’s “Bacchus” and Giambologna’s “Mercury” — alongside an outstanding collection of ceramics, glass, metalwork, ivories, enamels and other applied arts. Mr. Nespolo was invited by the Bargello to stage a retrospective of his work in its temporary exhibition space, the first time it has ever hosted a contemporary artist. Mr. Nespolo’s “Novantiqua”- the name is a word play on new and old — is curated by Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi, the museum’s director; it runs until Jan. 10. The show consists of 40 paintings and sculptures in ceramic, glass, bronze and other media, spanning Mr. Nespolo’s career. It includes three pieces, “Novantiqua 1-3,” inspired by the Bargello itself and made especially for this exhibition. Museums have long been a theme for Mr. Nespolo, as demonstrated by three earlier works among the paintings here. “Andy Dandy,” from 1973, features a bizarre display of three identical flower paintings [...]

On 22nd-25th October Valcucine will be presenting a made-over space at Viale Piave, 27 in Milan which, for Design in the city exposition, will host a showroom dedicated to the topic of dreams. The showroom, designed by Studiopepe Milano, will lead you into a dream world full of sensorial suggestions starring the new version of Artematica called Noce Tattile. Enjoy the luminous installations by Davide Groppi, an artist of pure light, the surprise reading performances of in-theme stories and, last but not least, the ironic and visionary food designers “Arabeschi di Latte” (Milk Arabesques) who will prepare surprising gastronomic creations in the showroom kitchen to tickle your taste buds. Next to the Habitat VALCUCINE showroom, the historical Spotti shop of Milan will present its new indoor proposals selected from the best brands of the sector in a renovated space that reinterprets contemporary living. Find out the location of all Valcucine showrooms… Press Office Europe ALAM per comunicare t +39 02 3491206 alamsas@tuttopmi.it General Press Office Daniele Prosdocimo T +39 0434 517911 daniele.prosdocimo@valcucine.it

We report here the interview with the architect Gabriele Centazzo for: ‘Le Fabbriche del design’ (from Casa&Design of Repubblica) The distinguishing elements of the Artematica kitchen are inspired by the special attention paid to environmental topics; is this something new or is it a trend you have always followed? «I have been basing my work on dematerialisation for more than twenty years; we live on an Earth in which 15% of the inhabitants consume 85% of the resources, the other 85% would like to consume just as much but there just isn’t enough for everyone. It is thus necessary to reduce the quantity of energy consumed to make products and services, and this is exactly what dematerialisation allows. When I started working in this direction, designing the first 5 mm thick aluminium door twenty years ago, it wasn’t possible to talk about eco-compatibility or low impact on the environment because these topics were not as important as they are today». What elements in the Artematica kitchen transform the dematerialisation concept into something tangible? «The door, the top and the carcass are all produced respecting the three main principles of recyclability, dematerialisation and durability; the latter is very important because an eco-compatible and recyclable element that is not durable is practically useless because more energy will soon be needed to produce another one. The kitchen we will be presenting at Eurocucina 2008 is, in fact, 100% recyclable». Which features contained in Artematica make us talk about high technology? «The door is the star, even in the hi-tech field. Our intention was that of changing the actual door concept by dividing the two elements that are traditionally joined together, i.e. the technical structure with its aluminium frame and the finishing element consisting in a very slim aluminium panel. Of course, in doing this, we have not neglected beauty. In fact, we have produced the first door with an invisible aluminium frame in order to achieve a kitchen in glass with pure volumes». One last question concerning the choice of the name; what inspired you? «The name comes from a combination of the words “art” and “mathematics”: art, because when producing this kitchen, we used an inlay technique on glass to which some artists contributed. This process was inspired by handicraft tradition that makes it possible to customise each single kitchen by means of decors suggested by young artists, by the designer or by [...]

Valcucine’s Artematica Vitrum glass kitchen is currently on display at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in Cellophane House, one of five on-site installations in the exhibition: Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling—on view July 20th through October 20th: www.momahomedelivery.org. Part 1 of the exhibit takes us through the history of prefabricated housing with pictures, film and models; Part 2, in an outdoor space to the west of the museum, shows prefabrication as a response to the urgent need for sustainability. Cellophane House is a full-scale prototype house that radically reinvents the way buildings are made: an aluminum frame serves as a matrix on which fabricated floors, ceilings, stairs are attached by bolted connections. The house is an impermanent object to be disassembled—not demolished—at the end of its life. Valcucine’s Artematica Vitrum kitchen makes ecological sense in the context of KieranTimberlake’s Cellophane House. For more than a quarter century, Gabriele Centazzo (chemist, engineer and head designer of Valcucine) has been committed to environmental integrity. Centazzo says, “On the brink of the third millennium, practical and ethical reasons oblige us to make a U-turn, transforming the destructive economy of the industrial era into a system that restores health to our planet and improves the quality of our life.” Valcucine’s Artematica Vitrum cabinetry— like Cellophane House—uses an aluminum structural frame for support. Gabriele Centazzo presented Artematica, its first “dematerialized” panel, in 1988. The cabinet fronts are less than ¼” thick tempered glass, the worktops ½” thick. Artematica’s aluminum frame reduces the amount of material used in the cabinet door by 85%, extending the life of hinges and joints, prolonging the life of the kitchen. Vitrum expresses Gabriele Centazzo’s passion for glass: made from an almost inexhaustible natural material (sand), glass is completely recyclable and sustainable, harder than steel, resistant to humidity and totally emission free. The Artematica Vitrum cabinet fronts in Cellophane House are white gloss, the countertop matte ebony glass. The entire kitchen is easy to dismantle, and labeled for recycling.