DePadova and Boffi celebrated the merging of their brands – by welcoming visitors from around the world to the very beautiful new DePadova showroom

DePadova left its’ historic landmark showroom on Corso Venezia to move around the corner, into the more intimate confines of a building on via Santa Cecilia, off Corso Monforte, and surrounded by numerous neighbouring design stores.

Now located in a romantic cul-de-sac in the heart of Milan, the new De Padova showroom looks unassuming from its minimal entrance, but it’s a vast surprise once inside.

The new showroom space is an open-plan, loft-apartment like, 1,100 square metre bright space designed by Piero Lissoni, art director of the two brands.

A domestic place to be re-discovered. Where architecture, design and interior design are together in an innovative dimension, with the usual style.

The new De Padova home is the reflection of today’s home, that doesn’t forget the past, but is focused on new relationships and dynamics. The space is a place of light and a laboratory of ideas.

It cannot be seen from the street, it shows itself through the crown of a big tree and discrete signs, at the end of the small Santa Cecilia street.

They call it an “hidden place” because you enter through a dark former car tunnel, which takes you below to an extraordinary garden

The entrance through the basement is also extraordinary because there’s a window, as though it were underground store.

This space is serenely beautiful and welcoming… having 4 and a half meter ceilings, skylights and large industrial glazing you’re in a mesmerizing world. The visitor is inside, but still outside.

The showroom spans two floors, housing company collections that range from seating to bookcases, beds and accessories.

Moving between the two levels visitors experience an outside / inside connection and in the innovative path among scene sets of real home solutions—recalls the relationship with the city and its industriousness.

Inside, windows and skylights bring a poetic light to the space, minimalist in structure but richly decorated with the company’s modern offering.

Set up as a domestic environment, the Piero Lissoni designed showroom presents as luminous home where De Padova can showcase its collections and ideas, merging industrial design with a wider lifestyle vision.

“Wow, how much passion has everyone put into this project,  there has been so much love” ….. Piero Lissoni

The De Padova store in via Santa Cecilia integrates in its display other solutions to furnishings, contextualizing them with bathrooms, kitchens and wardrobes by Boffi and, above all, with various material ranges of selected brand partners: from tiles to resins, from woods to fabrics for upholstery and curtains.

All items available to customers who, with the help of a team of architects, will create tailored interior projects, terraces and gardens—including heating systems, air conditioning and home automation

This video belwofeature very nice presentations by Piero Lissoni, Roberto Gavazzi  and Zoltan Depadova at the official launch function for the new showroom  – dedece highly recommends its viewing

About Piero Lissoni

Born Seregno, Italy, in 1956

After graduating in architecture from the Politecnico di Milano, Piero Lissoni started out on his career as designer and Art Director. Together with Nicoletta Canesi he opened the Lissoni Associati studio in 1986 in Milan.

1996 saw the creation of Graph.x, a company dedicated to the development of graphics projects.

The work of the studio, with a staff of over 60 people, involves architecture and interiors, industrial and graphic design.

Projects include hotels, resorts, showrooms, shops, headquarters, trade fair stands, private houses and yachts, from furnishing to lighting, from art direction to corporate identity, from catalogues to packaging.

Piero Lissoni develops projects for Alessi, Boffi, Cappellini, Cassina, Desalto, Fantini, Flos, Fritz Hansen, Glas Italia, Kartell, Knoll International, Lema, Living Divani, Lualdi, Matteograssi, Porro.

Incursions into the fashion world encompass store design and working with Italian brands such as Benetton, Gallo, Piazza Sempione, Santandrea, Serapian, in addition to the creation of  showrooms for the New York designer Elie Tahari.

Architectural projects embrace private residences along with company headquarters, theatres and hotels, including —the Grand Hotel Billia and Spa in Saint Vincent(Aosta) with its adjoining Parc Hotel, Casino and Congress Centre (2013; the Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam, former Conservatory of Music converted into a hotel (2011-2012); the Mamilla Hotel in Jerusalem with its 210 rooms and suites (2009); the renovation and interior design of the Hotel Monaco & Grand Canal in Venice (2002-2004); the Bentley Design HotelTM in Istanbul (2002); the Mitsui Garden Hotel in Tokyo (2005); the Studio M Hotel in Singapore (2010); the Hotel Bellariva, an historic manor house on Garda Lake (2010); the principal suites for The Pierre Hotel in New York (2010) and for The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai (2010).

In addition to showrooms for Boffi, Cassina, Porro and Tecno, Piero Lissoni completed the headquarters of Living Divani in Anzano del Parco (2007); the headquarters of Glas Italia (2010) and Matteograssi (2011) near Milan; the new offices of La Rinascente Group in Milan (2006); the eight-storey Benetton Store in Istanbul (2009).

Lissoni renovated the Teatro Nazionale in Milan (2009) for the Dutch group Stage Entertainment, maintaining the historic façade.

About DePadova

The DePadova home

A different view and the desire to change and renew are the generating spirit of the company founded in 1956 by Fernando and Maddalena De Padova, characterized by a strong focus on the modern, an instinctive taste for beauty and a care for projects that can stand on their own.

The great leaders brought together in a single catalogue: Achille Castiglioni, Pierluigi Cerri, Michele De Lucchi, Charles and Ray Eames, Vico Magistretti, Ingo Maurer, George Nelson, Dieter Rams… are responsible for choosing a new and extraordinary direction.

They are the inspiring tunes of a big symphony, to which the notes of other talented emerging designers followed and enriched the catalogue in the 2000s.

This path has been created by establishing connections across time and space, with precise cultural references, from folk to classic, from technological accuracy to the versatility of contemporary environments.

An imprint that has confirmed over time the special and unique DePadova language, rich in elegant style intuitions.

The merger with Boffi, in 2015, emphasizes this aptitude, starting from the launch of the current showroom, which is the new beginning.

The historical collection, under the art direction of Piero Lissoni, has been renewed and enriched with innovative items, designed by Lissoni himself, followed by Nendo, Maarten van
Severen and other brilliant minds.

The charming loft of Via Santa Cecilia, DePadova’s new address, becomes a place where one can imagine and design one’s own home or work environment.

Offering materials from selected partners and suggesting living solutions indicated by professionals, the single furnishings are organic and encompass an ever-changing backdrop to daily life.

The De Padova location, where one can always practice “sober simplicity”, has now been replicated over and over thanks to the widespread distribution of Boffi flagship stores.

One can now travel back to the starting point importing the international novelties to Milan and Italy.

From here one can set off again and go far away, whilst still maintaining the aim of feeding curiosity, passion and splendour.