Carbonari, a table for designer interiors

Working inside designer architecture is a complex exercise: on the one hand it means not interfering with strongly characterized contexts, on the other it implies avoiding purely mimetic approaches. Here we are in the condominium of Piazza Carbonari 2 in Milan - one of the most significant residential buildings of the Milanese master Luigi Caccia Dominioni - and the request of the client was clear: that of designing a versatile table that, combined in several modules, would furnish and shape up in a different way the large living room in the attic, in order to host temporary collective events such as exhibitions, presentations and concerts.

The apartment building was built as a single block in Piazza Carbonari in 1960 in what was then a peripheral area of the city. It is characterised by an irregular shape dictated by the need to achieve the maximum height allowed by the General Regulatory Plan and is shaped like a series of urban villas, overlapping in height and oriented towards the garden, a theme dear to Milanese architecture. The layout of the architectural block on the façade derives from the complex and unusual variety of the plants in its interiors as Caccia Dominioni says. It is characterized by flush windows joined by opaline connecting beams that extend to the corners, and bow windows that emerge like fractures from the homogeneous surface of the block.

Hence the project of Carbonari, a table born from the collaboration between the architects Stefano Marongiu (Marabelli Marongiu Architetti) and Marco Cattivelli (Scattered Disc Objects): a light easily dismountable object entirely made of aluminum alloys. When not in use, its parts can be disassembled and collected in order to be easily carried and occupy as little space as possible, Following the path of lightness, and discarding the volumetric ostentation of tables designed for large spaces, the two architects have made Carbonari a table that responds to the functional and aesthetic needs of the hall, a space characterized by anodized aluminum frames and mosaic flooring with zoomorphic motifs in marble grit, two recurring elements in the projects of the Milanese master. Almost on tiptoe, Carbonari touches the ground with its slender legs - whose bases are adjustable and finished in mirror - and gives the impression of floating in the void.

The table measures 90 x 170 cm and the tops are bent to ensure excellent fastening and greater structural strength. Each of its components, replaceable in case of wear, is hand-brushed to ensure a scratch-resistant and restorable surface. Finally, the use of aluminum as the only material used to make the table allows it to be also suitable for outdoor use. Furthermore its promotion of metal recycling, makes Carbonari an object that is not only light and flexible, but also somehow eternal.