Created with an outdoor vocation, but ready to cross indoor-outdoor boundaries, in spontaneous dialogue with any space in the home as well as the natural dimension en plein air. Libera is the name of the new kitchen by Elmar created by the architects Marco Merendi & Diego Vencato.
Compact, elegant and functional, it stands out for its strong identity, accentuated by the main material that gives it form, concrete, offered for the first time in different hues (mud, anthracite, rust, lichen, ocean and cloud), to blend harmoniously into a country garden, an industrial loft or an urban terrace. “Libera” means free, as in freedom from rigid spatial confines, but also from aesthetic conventions.
The force of the material is the distinctive feature, underlining a style applied by the two designers with inspiration from mid-century modern architecture: exposed support structures in metal and prefabricated concrete infill form the basic structure of this innovative kitchen, solid in its stature, airy in its visual results.
With a particular accent on sustainability: the concrete utilized, in fact, is a new high-performance material, completely ecological, Cementoskin®, produced with a water base, without harmful emissions.
“We wanted a kitchen that would have a relationship with people like an open work of architecture, made of transparency, in osmosis with the surrounding environment: not a full volume, then, but a filter that allows the light and colors of the setting to pass through – the designers say. – The relationship with external architectural spaces and the vegetation was fundamental, to enjoy convivial moments of life in the open air. We had a certain kind of light in mind, and the possibility of incorporating plants in the setting.”
Hence there is a suspended worktop, steel lattice for the supports (also vertical, to create a slight separation or a functional wall for hooks and hangers), a shelf with built-in lighting for the cooking area. Everything speaks of operative simplicity: a single philosophy, also seen in the systems of construction, transport and assembly.
