Bocci to open a permanent Italian base in the heart of Milan during Milan Design Week 2023
The apartment will invite guests to experience Bocci designs in an intimate residential setting
Underscoring the Canadian design and research studio’s presence in Europe, the Bocci Milan apartment marks an important milestone in the developing relationship between the brand and the city.
For years Bocci has considered Milan a second home, and now looks forward to moving into the role of host in a city that has long provided a warm welcome and boundless inspiration. Enabling Bocci to explore the full potential of a permanent base in Milan, the new apartment will offer long-term programming and provide visitors with an in-depth experience of the brand and its ecosystem.
The apartment is situated in an early twentieth-century building in Zona Vincenzo Monti, and joins Bocci’s exhibition space and studio in Berlin (set to open in September 2023), as a European hub for the brand’s transnational community of people, ideas, and objects.
ON DISPLAY AT THE MILAN APARTMENT
The Bocci Milan apartment will present designs in an intimate residential setting, fully immersing visitors in the lifestyle vision of the brand.
Objects within the apartment will be cycled periodically, the first iteration of which will showcase a range of designs, objects, and artefacts, that demonstrate the breadth of relationships Bocci has built with its associated staff, clients, designers, brands, and supporters over the years.
Alongside a collection of interior pieces from long-standing design collaborators, Bocci will present for the first time new items which have been developed at Bocci’s studio in Vancouver, Canada, ranging from a new pendant light titled 118, to the 1.1 shelving unit - a founding design from the brand, now finalised for public release. Additional pieces, including table lamps, task lights, wall hooks, and outdoor designs will also be presented for the first time, together with a selection of bespoke site-specific lighting installations.
Partnerships include a bespoke kitchen provided by Henrybuilt, alongside items shared by Christian Woo, ClassiCon, Coco-Mat, De La Espada, e15, Janaki Larsen, Knoll International, New Tendency, Orior Furniture, and Tino Seubert, amongst others.
The apartment will also showcase a curated art collection including works by staff, highlighting the range of creative talent that Bocci has nurtured and is privileged to work alongside. Further artworks are courtesy of Vancouver-based Monte Clarke Gallery.
BOCCI’S RELATIONSHIP WITH MILAN
Much of Bocci’s success can be credited to Milan and its culture of deep respect and commitment to the evolution of aesthetic investigation. As a leading design and research lab headquartered in Vancouver, Bocci continues to be inspired by Milan’s rich cultural offerings and its importance as the capital of the design world.
“With our apartment, we want to make “us” a larger community. The experience of having run a museum-scale space in Berlin with exhibitions, dinners, and collaborations showed us that our ethos of a like-minded community could go far and extend well beyond what we assumed was possible. We want to welcome Milan in and open up to it simultaneously.” Omer Arbel, Co-Founder at Bocci
Milan Design Week has long stood as a pivotal moment in the year for Bocci and the brand has enjoyed many years of successful activations during the period. In 2007, Bocci made its Milan debut with a presentation of the now iconic 14 series, suspended over Via Tortona. Subsequent presentations have taken place at various locations throughout the city, including Spazio Rossana Orlandi, DimoreGallery, and Salone del Mobile.
“Bocci’s first exhibition in Milan was on the side of Via Tortona, we hung one of our installations from a forklift over the sidewalk. So much has changed with us and with Milan… how we’ve grown together! It is nice to cement the relationship in our apartment.” Omer Arbel, Co-Founder at Bocci
Following Milan Design Week, the apartment will be permanently open to the public by appointment, with additional programming soon to be confirmed. Located at Via Lorenzo Mascheroni 2, guests are invited to access the apartment via. Via Giuseppe Rovani.
NOTE TO EDITORS
For media enquiries please contact Camron:
bocci@camronglobal.com
Bocci Milan
Via Lorenzo Mascheroni, 2
20123, Milan
ABOUT BOCCI
Bocci is a design studio and manufacturer based in Vancouver, Canada.
Experimentation, collaboration, and hands-on making fuel every object Bocci produces. The team - glassblowers, metalworkers, chemists, sculptors, designers, architects, and engineers - exchange skills and knowledge to extend the possibilities of form.
Bocci’s ongoing pursuit is to capture materials mid-transformation - in the act of cooling, exploding, and changing form. The metamorphosis is the piece, with the resulting artefacts emerging secondary to these chemical reactions. Form emerges from what Bocci refers to as “constrained chance”: they may set the frameworks, but the materials act out of their own will. Each collector of a Bocci object is invited to join this process.
Flexibility and adaptation define Bocci’s designs, it can take a day or a decade for a particular design experiment to become clear. This extended process is captured in Bocci’s naming system: every product is assigned a number; this is the order in which each experiment began, but did not necessarily finish. The first commercially available light fixture, 14, was followed by 21, then 22, 28, 57, and 73. The first design, 1, will only be introduced in 2024, after 113. The products Bocci chooses to manufacture are punctuation marks in Bocci’s ongoing study of cause and effect.