A designer particularly concerned with the design of domestic spaces and executive offices, the Venetian architect Michele Sbrogiò interprets industrial design as the continuous and tense drive towards design innovation. However, this is an innovation which, far from being self-referencing, aims to provide an overall improvement in the quality of life of its users, always. This sensibility is in line with that which has always defined Snaidero’s manufacturing philosophy. This is why in the 1980s the company commissioned him to develop an ambitious project, revisiting – in a modern and functional way – the traditional and classical kitchen concept.
This resulted in “Tempo”, a kitchen that was the prestigious fruit of detailed research into the historical roots of the kitchen space. The statement of intent was to return to the kitchen’s original constructional elements and traditional materials, combining them with the most modern requirements of functionality, modularity and storage space. The central nucleus of the traditional kitchen was comprised of the potager (work surface), work counter and storage cupboard. By revisiting them with a modern approach, Michele Sbrogiò re-proposed these three elements and their original functions, also using traditional materials, i.e.: stone, wood and metal. Applying a structural conciseness, the potager at the centre of the kitchen became a single working complex with the counter. The doors are made from elm wood and equipped with warm vertical slats employing a horizontal mechanism that allows them to slide comfortably sideways.
“Tempo” fully achieves its difficult intention to harmoniously and innovatively combine the material and emotional values of a long tradition with the most modern concepts of living and ergonomics applied to the kitchen space. It inherits from the past the use of fine materials and the placement of the hood as the conceptual focus point. At the same time it is reconnected with the most modern results of industrial design and technological research with the adoption of ergonomic work surfaces, based on modular balconies that allow for the most articulated furnishing solutions.
