It seems like an era has passed since I met the client. It was 2014, a peculiar year during which Robin Williams left us, Germany won the football World Cup and we Italians found out that there is a great woman amongst us: Samanta Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman to take part in the international space station, an epic challenge.
So many details were missing to our adventure, though. The location and the name for this new haunt were still missing.
But I met a man, Rodolfo, a man with a concept, an entrepeneur, a little bit of a dreamer, with an important and new idea that needed a perfect sartorial dress.
This is how everything started: drinking a very Italian coffee, in a veranda.
We needed to put together in one box all the pieces of this puzzle made of so many different objectives, in order to have a multifunctional venue, both a drinking and dining one, but especially dedicated to live shows, which are the heart of this project.
The venue should have been also – and especially – a hotbed for emerging groups and artists that would have improved themselves and performed on stage during the dedicated nights. Its goal would have been to become a benchmark for live shows.
A personal consideration: I believe that many of us are sometimes amazed when singing out of tune the song of the moment, in their car, by themselves. Well, it happens to me, almost every day: it must be a matter of enthusiasm... and I think that the dream of many of us is to perform on a stage in front of hundreds of people waiting for you, to dedicate the show to someone you love, to give your talent – whether small or big – to others. I believe that many forms of art exist: poetry, painting, sculpture, photography... but the most exciting is the one that makes you win your fears and anxiety and makes you perform in front of an audience that claps hands, jumps and repeats the words of a song.
To me, it was exciting imagining this project, up to arrange the last accessory.
Technically, it was hard to give new life and form to a recent industrial building.
This is how “Zomby Blue live Club” was born.A venue that I would define as “elegantly informal”, where I tried to mitigate the industrial effect either by using darkness, by putting different seatings upholstered with classic velvets that remind of big theatres, or by placing the curtains in the entering foyer. I didn't erase the original forms of the structure: on the contrary, I preserved them in all the different finishings inside, as if they were many new islands.
In my project, I wanted to let Zomby be discovered slowly and gradually, while walking through the different zones, all of which belong to a specific theme in the venue.
Starting from the entrance, the curtains stop the guests at the reception. From here, you can walk to the bar, and then you will find the beer cell. At the back, you will find the kitchens' zone, with open grill and pizza place.
While moving inside, the guest is welcomed in the restaurant area at the ground floor: here, tables made of different materials and of different measures combine with single and convivial seatings.
The restaurant area extends on a first raised zone, where there is a historical and original Fiat 500. Right behind it, you will find the entry stairs. A metal bookcase containing vintage radios joints the different heights.
Past the classic tables, you will find different lounge areas where you can relax during happy hour or with an after dinner drink.
From this point, you can walk to the loft. At the centre there is the cocktail bar, covered in natural iron and placed on a carpet with light and dark ceramics, that can be found also in the guests' restroom.
An exclusive area with vintage yet modern sofas overlooks the lower floor. This area can be closed with elegant sliding curtains, thus creating a private area to offer a reserved and cosy experience while enjoying the view and watching the shows.
The “Jungle fever” wallpaper includes the refined wine cellar and completes the loft.
Going back to the ground floor, in order to preserve and optimise the acoustics, the area dedicated to the stage for the live shows is organised on the side opposite the structure without the perimetral glass wall. This is a transformable area, completed with walls covered with noise dampening wood, studied to guarantee the exact perception of sound and to limit the echo.
Everything is illuminated by vintage wall lights: here the guests can have dinner while watching the show, either in front of the stage or on a frontal raised stalls area.
Regarding the accessories: in addition to various vintage objects, such as the famous Fiat 500 and a series of musical instruments – all of which have a story and sentimental value – the internal walls are decorated by a collection of caricatures that represent musicians of the modern era by artist Veronica Pozzi and by an exhibition of photographic portaits from recent concerts, by photographer Gaia Mencicchi.
