Dom Edizioni

When even furniture has a soul to it The design, first of all. As a vital breath. An inseparable pencil with a soft tip follows his gestures. What he buys more often during his journeys are sketchbooks. Even if, after all, a simple slip of paper, the back of an envelope or any other white surface are enough for him to represent, within that space, an idea. Domenico Mula “sees” by drawing. With the talent of whom, with a few strokes, materializes ideas (be it objects or whole fittings) having already the perception of the finished result. “The design is something that springs up inside yourself, then it is fixed on the paper becoming at the same time mental projection”, he says. To the many types of software that predefine ideas, he prefers still the “old” lead by Faber Castell, to sharpen by hand. From one of his ideas has been conceived the DOM Home Philosophy, in order to create a style whose roots get from Domenico Mula’s passion for interior design, of which he is an established trends forerunner. A careful attention paid to details, coupled with the refinement of all of his projects, completes the criteria of his unmistakable philosophy. That may be summed up with three words which have a literary reminiscence: luxury, calm and voluptuousness, paraphrasing Baudelaire. Italy, the world craftsman DOM Edizioni, his society created in 2006, realizes fittings for homes, yachts and luxurious hotels (the latest creation is the prestigious Golf Resort situated in Argentario) expressing mainly three concepts: the creative fit of Domenico Mula matched with the scrupulous object study, even beginning from the historical origins of the worldwide design, with archive researches that bring new lymph to the ideational and production process. The valorisation of the skill and knowledge of the craftsmen he works with, checking every manufacturing stage. An essential requisite: all parts are 100% made in Italy, that means an object conceived and made in Italy, by Italian hands, which are used to think according to a very high quality standard. “A chair, a table, are of course the outcome of design, but it is all the same sure and important that the craftsman, in the manufacturing stages, gives his own contribution. I spend many hours with the craftsmen: from them I learn always something useful for my work. It is very satisfactory to manufacture well and make any product a unique piece”. And thinking aloud, Domenico Mula ponders the value of his own experience as a designer and a businessman declaring: “We, the Italians, must become again the world craftsmen, open again the workshops here. We have a knowledge that no other country has all over the world”. The materials, between discoveries and rediscoveries Notwithstanding, there is a third principle which stimulates Domenico Mula designer and businessman and it is also a basic rule: to become keen on the materials that are worked. To discover always new ones, is an unending challenge for the creators. Twelve years ago, overcoming the resistance of many people, he brought in the market the black stained wood, which has become part of the language of interior design by now. In 2006 his flair led him to propose pieces of furniture in gloss Chinese lacquer (an ancient material but up-to-date glossy). And today he stakes on Makassar ebony, gloss brass and on velvet, as it was the custom in the Forties for the sofas. “To be keen on a material means to discover all its intrinsic potentialities: recently I have realised a cabinet with a rhomboidal shape in the middle, making the most of the wood grains, that is Makassar ebony”. It’s Michel, the best seller of DOM Edizioni. To foresee the trends, the fashions, the tastes: Domenico Mula is endowed of this sensitive radar. 25 years ago he planned the kitchens with the “islands” when it was not yet in fashion. And 12 years ago, for his own home, he had a washbasin made, hollowed out from the stone, wandering around the Carrara quarries looking for the suitable piece: a trachyte block weighing 440 kilos. Today that the stone washbasin is a status symbol, once more Domenico Mula had reproposed it in advance. This sensitiveness in choosing materials, is the winning spur for the design of his fittings: people apply to him to found a style, which is that of DOM Edizioni, rather than to buy simply a piece of furniture. His customers – showrooms of the field, architects and interior designers- tend all towards the research. “In order to avoid furnishing houses that are the spitting image of one another, instead with the thought that a house is a being that must grow up together with the people that later on will live in it” says Domenico Mula. “Together with these professionals I perform a fascinating path that never consists only in purchasing or supplying pieces of furniture, but is mainly a relational exchange of opinions, of professional experiences mutually stimulating”. Absolute refinement, the new key word Roman, naturalized in Romagna, in Cesena – where the headquarters of the company are - Domenico Mula is arrived here twenty-five years old and decided to stay marrying Antonella, who has been his partner for 20 years and with whom he has two children. Of his Roman origin he has still his pronunciation, of the Romagna region he has acquired that characteristic passion for life and things. But he decided that he wanted to be a businessman when he was five years old, when he followed his father, businessman too. “From him I learnt the sacrifice for the company sake, the business as a lifetime mission”, he declares. And the crisis, that nowadays troubles almost everybody, to Domenico Mula becomes a stimulus for the responsibility to do properly one’s work, to manufacture with the utmost care, trying to give always a greater identity to the product. “Nowadays, people consider carefully the purchase to be done“, says Mula, “for this reason we must offer the best they can found on the market”. But in what type of houses will we live in ten years’ time? What is the trend of interior design? “The house entirely conceived in terms of design got people tired of it, it has come to an end the time of decoration when, for example, the baroque armchair was matched with the Buddha statue. Today the direction is towards an absolute refinement, of fabrics, of woods, of metals preciously worked. Therefore we will go back to the main role of the artistic handicraft, as in the past when the pieces of furniture were signed by creators and designers such as Ulrich, Ponti, Prouvé or Gellner”. Domenico Mula stakes, in his company, on the team synergy. Therefore, he has decided to “recruit” two designers known at an international level: Andrea Fogli and Kaki Kroener. The first stands out for the originality and cosmopolitan style of his achievements in the field of luxury hotels. The Parisian designer Kaki Kroener intervenes with her signature style (mindful of her previous experience in the fashion field) achieving a result strongly marked by the French spirit of savoir vivre, the art of living, with a perfect balance between decoration, essence and appearance, logic and aesthetic. Two designers with dissimilar personalities, but both share the DOM HOME Philosophy inspiration features: purity of lines, precious details and originality of contents. Cardinal points and guiding lines that set up new trends, new tastes. The optimism during the crisis From the hand that designs to the hand of the craftsman that polishes precious woods or sews exclusive fabrics, here it is: the process of synthesis. The man's hand, always a wonderful tool, confirms to be so still nowadays, within a "conducted" path, of which the DOM Home Philosophy is the standard bearer in the luxury interior design world. Indeed, even if the pieces of furniture are mass-produced, they are conceived as unique pieces, given the originality of the design and the care lavished in all the production stages, from the very first design to the finishes of the handmade articles. Thanks to all that, Dom Edizioni had a lucky market result in these last three years, despite the unfavourable moment of the sector. But the quality of the product is a certificate of valid guarantee. And the aware purchase is repaid in the future. The pieces of furniture DOM Edizioni are destined to last and to become, in the future decades, refined modern antiques.