‘Da a’ is a mysterious name, but once it is explained the meaning becomes clear. In Italian ‘da a’ indicates a pathway, ‘from-to’ or “from here to there.” The name sums up the direction of a company, which from heavy industrial machinery has shifted into exploration of furniture design. An alternative to serial production, where designers and industrial excellence Made in Italy join forces to work on a novel challenge: to make décor complements using the tools and skills that go into earth movers and heavy mechanical components.
A new idea of design, in which the artisanal dimension of know-how is an essential part. An aesthetic vision and a productive approach at the same time, an industrial process and extraordinary skills for welding, bending, finishing. Making new technological solutions coexist with age-old techniques of workmanship, recovered and reassessed. The designers who have built the identity of the company are many: Alberto Ghirardello, Angeletti Ruzza, Baldessari & Baldessari, Bartoli Design, Bellavista Piccini, Castiglia Associati, CE Studio, Debonademeo, Emilio Nanni, Fabio Meliota, LO Studio, Lorenzo Damiani, Luca Casini, Marc Sadler, Laudani Romanelli, Saverio Incombenti, Studio Klass. The new developments for the Salone del Mobile.Milano 2022 are by Angeletti Ruzza, Baldessari & Baldessari, Lorenzo Damiani, Lo Studio and CE Studio.
Sol, by Baldessari & Baldessari, is a collection of upholstered furnishings (sofas, armchairs and chaises longues) conceived for outdoor use and completed with low iron tables. As the name suggests, the collection is for spending enjoyable outdoor time in the sunshine, seated or reclining in perfect comfort. The end pieces of the composition and the low tables at the center offer ceramic tops on which to place candles, glasses and bottles.
Angeletti Ruzza present two new versions of the Hen chair (Hen Circle and Hen Maxi), lounge seating in curved steel featuring two laser-cut patterns. “Without its windows or its doors, domestic space cannot be inhabited. The opening of the windows allows light to enter, while the door is the passageway between inside and outside, the crossing,” the designers explain. These are the thoughts that have guided the design of the Hen seating: the empty portions have the same importance as the full ones, designing the pied-de-poule pattern and a series of circles of different sizes that allow light to pass, coloring the metal screen.
Hen Maxi by Da a,
Design Angeletti Ruzza
Hen Circle by Da a,
Design Angeletti Ruzza
Screws by Da a, Design Lorenzo Damiani
In the Screws table by Lorenzo Damiani the structure that blends the legs and the top becomes functional decoration, granting lightness of form to the entire composition. The ribbing under the metal top is based on the lateral development of the two legs, surpassing without ever touching them. The presence of brass screws on the top sets the functional and aesthetic tone of the table; created for indoor or outdoor use thanks to the application of special finishes, Screws comes in various sizes, determining a different number of visible screws on the top itself.
Damiani has also created the ApiùB table, a hybrid product composed of the sum of two elements that can coexist or be separated in the space. The design combines a fixed top in metal with another mobile part on wheels: the latter can be interpreted as a second service top – when made in metal – or as an informal seat when it is soft. The sum of the two portions generates an object that is easy to separate thanks to the simple geometry of the forms.
The Torii (lunch and coffee) table is by Lo Studio. Purity of form, and the force of material. The steel, in its variations of thickness and the play of vertical and horizontal interlocks, gives the structure its form. The metal, in its original material essence, is interpreted in various surface finishes, and in the outdoor version it encounters stoneware glazed by hand with a glossy finish in the colors indigo and green.
Torii by Da a, Design Lo Studio
Torii by Da a, Design Lo Studio
I-Tube by Da a, Design CE Studio
Finally, CE Studio has designed the I-Tube table, now also offered in a rectangular version: in this case, the base is composed of two large steel cylinders with a slightly ovoid cross-section, becoming a very vivid presence. A collection of furnishings (indoor or outdoor) capable of establishing a profound relationship with even very different spaces: historic works of architecture, urban or rural, as well as contemporary projects. And capable of adding something more.
