Pure volumes, pale colours with touches of red and the minimal design of Porro have been chosen for the new restaurant at the Teatro Sociale in Como, inaugurated last Saturday, 9 October 2010, in Piazza Verdi.

Connected to the theatre via a corridor coloured bright red that leads to the counter of the bar, opening into an attractive star motif, “18.13 La cucina del teatro” is distinguished by a pleasant double-height dining area entirely furnished with the latest proposals by Porro, the design brand founded in Brianza but famous all over the world for its immediately identifiable style and the high quality of its project proposals.

Fractal 90x90cm square tables with white painted aluminium structure and matt moon white lacquered high resistance top and Neve white natural stained ash chairs with a minimalist purity have been chosen for the space on the ground floor, looking out onto a pleasant outside area where it is possible to dine during the milder months, while the upper floor benefits from the warmth of natural woods and suffused lighting.

For a large group, an initial environment is devised furnished with the Synapsis 3-metre-long table with white structure and moon white gloss lacquered top and Neve armchair, chosen here in the black stained ash finish. Among the new creations by Piero Lissoni, Neve reinterprets the classic wooden chair in a contemporary style. While the supporting structure is characterised by a layout of clear lines of various thicknesses, slightly inclined, giving it a pleasantly aerodynamic air, the roundness of the spindle legs and the soft curve of the back and the suspended seat soften its figure, making it extremely intimate and pleasant. The scene is lit by two Shadow Light lamps in the pendant version by Swedish designers Front. When off they have a tidy and minimal design, in tune with the furnishing brand that has made elegant formal simplicity its calling card. However, thanks to their special “double skin” lampshade, an external white diffuser that conceals a chromed semi-dome inside studded with holes of various diameters, for a system of shadows and multiple reflections, once turned on they are covered in dots, projecting a fun and charming dotted motif throughout the room, a cascade of little bubbles to make the air more sparkling.

Another common area then proceeds into the two environments with vaulted ceilings overhanging the space below. Here white Fractal 80x80cm square tables are accompanied by Neve black stained ash chairs, while on the wall, an Endless Shelf carbone oak bookcase with black aluminium joints and low feet, with its fun square shape conceived by Werner Aisslinger, satisfies the storage needs of the dining room.

Finally, among the most captivating new proposals by Porro, the Neve armchair in bright fire red finish, perfectly in tune with the strong colours and pronounced forms of this space, which has the task of attracting and welcoming spectators before and after theatre shows, and of hosting events and experimental performances in its own right.

To house the new restaurant, in connection with the main foyer of the Como Social Theater, we recovered rooms located in the ground floor and the back courtyard.

The internal surface panelling refers to the theater world, using the purple-red color like the tipical curtain. To create an exciting contrast with the still white surfaces of the walls and vaults, the pannels winks to the textures of the traditional curtain, creating a rithm of matt and gloss surfaces. Faced to one of the main square of Como, the three spaces are connected each other by the intermediate floor and the same cladding draws a peculiar linear lounge. The leather chairs, the red curtains, the spotlights: all these elements of the stage evokes the mistery and the kind of surreal state of a famous scene of "Twin Peaks", movie directed by D.Lynch.

The idea of “two faced” and of “mirror” involves the project of the bar counter. This volume is faced from one part to the new lounge zone, from the other to the old foyer, junction between the new space and the old rooms.

The trick is more evident in the corridor that take to the courtyard, used as an optical instrument: a geometrical form flashes at the beginnig of the corridor, created by the red cladding, anamorphosis of a rotated rectangle, and she crashes dinamically, walking forward to the back white part of the restaurant.

The intermediate floor is identified by a deep railing, that perceptually, with the same high of the dining tables, enlarges the room and provides to give privacy from the lower main lounge. On the back side, inside the courtyard, a new dinner-room is leant against the medieval walls like an extention of them. Is possible to open the big window toward the outside, giving to the courtyard all the character of an open air stage.