In the mid-1990s, Paola Lenti founded a company under her name in Milan. Thirty years later, her eponymous brand is an internationally established reference in the field of design. The work with fibers and fabrics developed by her and her team is defined by a sui generis intersection between craftsmanship and technology.
The furniture brand, now present in more than 60 countries, has a new flagship store in São Paulo, reinforcing Brazil as one of the brand's strategic markets — represented here by Casual Móveis. The address occupies a three-story, 750 m² building, designed specifically for the brand by Armentano Arquitetura (AARQ).
The Architectural Project
The project was conceived not only to give a Brazilian home to the acclaimed Italian furniture, but to reflect, within the building itself, some of the brand's defining characteristics. Three main aspects make this dialogue explicit: the simplicity of the floor plan arrangement, the construction method, and the development of the façade.
The store space was designed to give the displayed objects center stage. The open floor plan, a legacy of modern architecture, allows for endless arrangements and configurations of the furniture. The apparent freedom of this space results from a clear intentionality: establishing a relationship between the architecture and the object guided by the rigorous hierarchy of form following function.
It is in this sense that the store's construction method reinforces the realization of its concept, since it is the independent metal structure that provides the fluidity and continuity of the interior space. The metal structural grid echoes the technical rigor celebrated in Lenti's furniture and supports the glass box that envelops the interior space.
Finally, the third aspect consists of a green façade, created from a lattice of plants attached to tensioned steel cables spanning the openings of the metal structure, winding their way toward the ground and filtering the light that bathes the exhibition space. This is a reinterpretation of the production process behind the objects conceived by Lenti's team, in which high technology is employed to manufacture the weaves and fibers that make up the pieces.
