Forno Belfiore is located in a tiny commercial space on the ground floor of a historic building in the well-known central district of Turin: San Salvario. There are only 25 square meters dedicated to the sales area, bakery workshop, storage, and sanitary facilities with a changing room.

The aim of the project was to transpose the client’s unique artisanal nature of bread-making into a commercial setup, compressed within a layout strongly constrained by the size of the premises and the hygiene regulations of the city of Turin. This small shop, facing a public street, is the materialization of the relationship between the client, the city, and his customers.

The transparent, sliding partition that separates the sales area from the kitchen/workshop allows passers-by and buyers to observe the preparation of organic and artisanal products and the hands at work of those who produce them.

Forno Belfiore’s products are made with organic flours, ancient grains, and manual and artisanal processes. Similarly, the shop is composed in space with the use of natural materials: solid woods, plasters, original floors, and hygienic, unvarnished, and washable surfaces. The display cases and sales counter were specially designed for the store and made by local artisans. The preservation of the original wall surfaces and floors imposed constraints on the installation of lighting systems, for which bright track spotlights were chosen, installed on false valchromat beams, handcrafted for the sales area.

The colors were chosen to convey a sense of welcome and domestic reality. The back wall, the same color as the ceramics used to cover the sides of the workshop, serves to contrast the wooden and valchromat elements present in the sales front and to enhance the height of the vaulted ceiling.

The tiny Forno Belfiore in San Salvario in Turin is a puzzle solved of functional needs, production, compliance with regulations, and personal requests, representing an artisanal reality as small as it is quality.