After the exuberance of the moods of the last few months, the arrival of spring brings a breeze of stable harmony and delicate freshness, without abrupt contrasts. Eusophia (from the Greek eu, good, and sophia, wisdom) – the name we have decided to give to the February moodboard, the month in which the climate starts to ease its harshness – is not a style but a balanced grammar made of tones that dance amidst similar hues, hugging like siblings on the color wheel of Johannes Itten, painter and teacher at the Bauhaus.
A palette of greens, from grass to emerald, mint to petroleum, guiding us along a gentle hillside towards a landscape of rich and varied nuances. “A road runs through the woods,” an old Italian song once said, leading to a solitary dwellinig in the treetops. Alongside this rather naïf scenario we have created another setting: an interior that fosters calm in everyday life, in a silent form of universal empathy.
Turning to another song (this time by Lou Reed): “Just a perfect day, you made me forget myself,” is a line that quickly sums up the beauty of those ideal moments that make us forget our worries, also rediscovered in Perfect Days, the marvelous film by Wim Wenders nominated for an Oscar in 2024 (best foreign film).
A small building can be seen in the distance: it is the Black Stilt House, the mini-dwelling (just 19 cm high) in mahogany, handmade by Ethnicraft. A row of trees, like the “tall straight” cypresses of Bolgheri in the poem by Carducci, marks the ascent. They are the Aira floor lamps designed by Marcantonio Raimondi Malerba for Horm, made in satin-finish brass and Carrara or Nero Marquinia marble.
As the background of the moodboard, we have chosen the Line Relief teal wallpaper by Spaghetti Wall, created by Sergio Brioschi and Valentina Ventrelli, a sophisticated game of shadows and perspectives that nimbly shifts out perception.
For a graphic match in our pathway through nature we have used the sinuous, organic lines of the famous Osaka sofa designed in 1967 by Pierre Paulin and produced by LaCividina, permitting formulation of infinite solutions by juxtaposing straight and curved parts. Geometric design evoking the 1960s for the Johnson glass vase by Bloomingville.
A spontaneous shape that extends downward, just like the strands of a willow tree: it’s the Falkland lamp designed by Bruno Munari in 1964 for Danese. The form is generated by the tension between the fabric tube and seven metal rings of different diameters placed along the length. Above, an aluminium reflector defends the light, following the curves of the fabric. A luminous, bright tone with a blue background, the emerald green of the Uni sideboard by Piero Lissoni for Cappellini becomes the focal point of the composition, also thanks to its minimal form.
A sophisticated touch of mint green joins our palette – that of the Rebels ottoman by Covo, made with neoprene cord in various thicknesses, flexible and soft, woven by hand with special crafts techniques. Oblò by Casamilano, designed by Pietro Russo, is an impressive metal mirror with a forceful look. Its distinctive feature can be seen in the two tubular extensions, which add personality to the piece and seem to support it, though they are actually purely decorative.
To warm up the setting we have used the Plié wall lamp created by Paolo Dell’Elce for Il Fanale, which with its pleated rays becomes a sun setting behind the hill. Infinity is there in the distance, beyond the path that crosses the mountains: the landscape painted on the Toscana wall panel by Casamance offers a harmonious backdrop of warm and cool tones.
A change of scene: long, slender branches that reach to the ground for the Salici WPN 410 covering by Spaghetti Wall, made to measure with millimetric precision.
The Nuvola chair, part of the Paesaggio collection by SEM with the designer Hannes Peer, has a structure in lacquered iron, a wooden shell in Santos rosewood, and foam rubber padding covered in leather. Finally, the terracotta vase Glazed Shades by Serax. To be utilized for compositions made only of branches and leaves: a small domestic forest.
