INTERIOR DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

In the heart of Milan's shopping district, an interior project designed by Federico Delrosso for the new store of watchmaker brand, Gagà Milano.

Federico Delrosso has devised a project that plays on the manipulation of perceptions for the new sales outlet of watchmaker brand, Gagà Milano*.

The work set out with two completely functional needs: to expand the perception of the fairly small space (approximately 40 m2 at no.8 Corso Venezia), and to create a very clean interior to hold products– the watches– which have a strong chromatic and material character.

Hence the idea of creating a time capsule, in which the two founding elements (space and time) have been "altered" by the work of the architect.

To amplify the perception of volumes, Federico Delrosso created two high iron walls, slightly inclined both horizontally and vertically. It's a matter of just a few centimeters, almost invisible to the distracted eye, but it significantly changes the observers' sense of the space, especially in the visual link it creates between the street level and the mezzanine.

For the time the customer spends observing the internal displays, Delrosso has created a neutral volume, almost an excavation in the walls, lit up by a band of LED lights, without details or evident points of reference. Thus the display windows and LED band unfold before the eyes of the observer, eliminating the passage of time.

To complete the neutrality and abstraction of the space, an almost invisible display case, made entirely from glass with concealed frames, contains the large, three-dimensional logo of Gagà Milano alone, that appears dangling in space. Together with the choice of materials used internally: shiny bla ck stone for the floors, raw, waxed iron for the sloping walls and the mezzanine flooring, the ceiling white, like the full-height custom-made furniture, made from opaque white lacquered wood.

Even the lighting was entrusted to completely concealed fixtures (DavideGroppi): the Nulla lamps stud the ceilings like very distant light sources, while Mima lamps (designed by Federico Delrosso himself), integrated into the vertical walls, cast luminous flux onto the dark floor from below.

*Gagà Milano is an international watchmaker brand, founded in 2004 in Milan. The Milanese store has been added to those of the brand already open in Tokyo, Osaka and Hawaii.

GAGA' Milano store specifications:

Project: Federico Delrosso Architects

Brand: Gagà Milano

Year: 2012

Location: MILAN, corso Venezia 8

Surface area: divided over 2 floors, 40 m2 street level + 11m2 loft + 28m2 basement for service areas.

Furniture: Henry Timi

Lights: Davide Groppi

Construction work: HT srl Milano

photo credits: Fausto Mazza