OFFICE + RETROFIT office furniture collection10. Jun2011
Why office furniture should not have a second life? When your office wants to discard the old furniture think twice before you let it go. Take a look at it and put your mind at work. With a little creativity and open mind you can achieve what Sovrappensiero Design Studio managed to do with their old furniture from their office.
Here is how they describe their project:
"OFFICE + RETROFIT is a collection of furniture, created by a recovery intervention developed by Sovrappensiero Design Studio and built by Manerba to reuse their stock of old office furniture and to rethink a new feature, an aesthetics and formal reinterpretation of the products but also a new cultural perspective. The word Retrofit suggests the installation of new devices or components into production systems that were not originally designed to receive them. This process arises in environments with large availability of old products and allows not only to retrieve the obsolescent object, but also to implement an upgrade of the product, that will be able to respond to new needs.
The project idea is the balance between two different objectives: the first is to create a strong contrast with the traditional image of impersonal, institutional and rigorous offices, and the other is to make the production easy and cheap. The products are marketed through alternative retail channels, consistent with the spirit of the retrofit. The collection of furniture OFFICE + RETROFIT is created by outdated structures from Manerba stocks, natural wood, polypropylene fabric and standard components. The original function and aesthetic of the product is converted so as to give the heat and variety of home-offices."
The collection includes:
• waiting bench with upholstered seats and wood structure
• suspended chest of drawers from outdated structures, wooden strips and buttons
• panelled desk made by assembling old desks and Honeycomb panels
• planter created from old chests, wooden strips and industrial wheels
• wastebasket from outdated drawers, polypropylene fabric and industrial wheels
• bookcase made of gym ladder, shelves and cord
• Desk with trestles made from legs of desks, wooden planks and rope. Top made from damaged shelves and colored plaster
• vase assembled from industrial trolley and polypropylene fabric
via Mocoloco & Modalitademoda
Sovrappensiero Design Studio, active in the field of product and furniture design in Milan since 2007, arises from creative partnership of two young designers, Lorenzo De Rosa and Ernesto Iadevaia, grown up in the Caserta and attracted by new challenges.Their career is marked by strong collaborations with Odoardo Fioravanti e Paola Navone where they learned constant curiosity and creative experimentation.
They took part in well-known events, like the Salone del Mobile in Milan and a few events for emerging designers, like Over Design Over, where they got interesting results and new collaborations.
During the Mantova Creativa event, a meeting between art, culture and business, held in Italy between June 10 to June 12, Sovrappensiero Design Studio will unveil their new designed collection of office furniture: OFFICE + RETROFIT, realized by the interior design company Manerba Spa.
