Alcantara will not pass unnoticed during Milan Design Week.

The Italian brand showed up with a giant outdoor magic installation in the heart of Corso Como ( right next door to 10 Corso Como )

Newly inaugurated, the Alcantara Magic Hotel is a project by Gentucca Bini who covered a building under renovation, along the famous Milan pedestrian road

Using 200 square metres of soft Alcantara, he has reproduced the façade of a real hotel where 2D elements join three-dimensional ones, such as the central balcony and some window shutters, thus producing a highly realistic effect.

Thanks to the versatility of a material able to shape anything that imagination desires, an ancient building of Milan under renovation is already as new and full of life: the tribute of Alcantara to the city of Milan is destined not to go unnoticed.

On air for the whole month of April, the Alcantara Magic Hotel marks a new frontier in outdoor communications, offering a storytelling that lies rightfully in the field of art and experimental design.

Concept Development

Gentucca Bini, creative mind at 360 degrees (architect, fashion and interior designer) already boasts a number of collaborations with Alcantara company –

Technology of Dreams exhibition (Milan, Palazzo Reale, April-May 2015)
Local Icons. Greetings from Rome exhibition, the Alcantara project in partnership with MAXXI Museum (Rome, March-June 2015)
Unordinary Space exhibition (Shanghai, Aurora Museum, November 2015 – February 2016).

“ Since the very first project together, I wanted to experiment and play with the feature I personally discovered, that really hit my mind and that I am continuing exploring in new projects: the photographic performance of the printing which, thanks to the physical properties of Alcantara® material, transforms it from twodimensional element to three-dimensional, magic world! This is why I decided to title this incredible installation ‘Alcantara® Magic HOTEL’, because Alcantara® really expresses a magic world, as magic is the collaboration we are developing, precious also for the future evolution of design ”….. Gentucca Bini

The Alcantara Magic Hotel stands out for a number of highly distinctive features: first of all, the blend of 2D and 3D elements, obtained by the combination of Alcantara with photographic printing in ultra HD together with bulging architectural components – as the central balcony and some blinds – also covered with soft printed Alcantara.

The technique of ultra HD photographic printing, the artwork highlights the versatility and uniqueness of the renowned trademarked material.

The result is an amazing play of optical illusions: despite being two dimensional, Alcantara returns the photographic printing with a three-dimensional, vivid and extremely realistic effect, further enhanced by the giant dimensions of the installation (about 17m x 12m).

As the sun goes down, the installation becomes even more evocative: a series of video mapping animations showed through the windows, what hotel guests get up to behind the facade

The Alcantara Magic Hotel Lobby Restaurant

And as the Sun goes Down

As the sun goes down, some blinds open to unveil the hotel’s guests while busy with their activities: one who takes the shower, watches television, reads a book or gets ready to go to bed.

Stories of ordinary life that people passing by can observe sitting on a bench like it used to happen in the past, when Corso Como was a working-class street of the old Milan.

About Gentucca Bini

Andrea Borgano and Gentucca Bini

Gentucca Bini was born in Milan in 1970.

Her grandmother, couturier, in her atelier in via Montenapoleone, collaborated in the sixties with artist of the caliber of Fontana, Baj, Arnaldo Pomodoro and Scanavino.

Her father Stefano, architect, designed the Pierre Cardin stores worldwide until the 80s.

It is natural that the imprinting received has influenced her professional career, once terminated the studies of architecture and industrial design in Milan and Paris.

After a formative experience in the atelier of Pierre Cardin, Gentucca Bini was the assistant of André Leon Talley and collaborated with Karl Lagerfeld.

Parallel Gentucca launches herself in the creation of clothes with the desire to revive the work of her grandmother, reproducing a model created with Lucio Fontana.

In 2006, she was appointed Creative Director of the brand Romeo Gigli.

From 2009 Gentucca Bini has been exclusively dedicated to the collection that holds her name.

Her Milanese atelier is situated on the naviglio pavese in an ex theater transformed into some sort of factory where clothes are projected, developed and produced at 360 degrees.

In 2014 Gentucca Bini launched The Charm of The Uniform, a capsule collection of professional work garments, an homage to the true elegance, that developed in laboratories and workshops.

About Alcantara Italy

Founded in 1972, Alcantara represents a prime example of Italian-produced quality.

As registered trademark of Alcantara S.p.A. and result of a unique and proprietary technology, Alcantara® is a highly innovative material, offering an unrivalled combination of sensory, aesthetic and functional qualities.

Thanks to its extraordinary versatility, Alcantara® is the choice of leading brands in a number of application fields: fashion and accessories, automotive, interior design and home décor, consumer-electronics. These features, together with a serious and certified commitment in terms of sustainability, make Alcantara a true icon of contemporary lifestyle: the lifestyle of those who want to fully enjoy their everyday life, respecting the environment.

Headquartered in Milan, Alcantara production site and R&D department are located in Nera Montoro, in the heart of Umbria Region (Terni).