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Art of Glass
From the glass staircase in Santambrogio’s Milan showroom to the new interiors on show in London, the creative options are clear to see...
Italian architectural glass design company SantambrogioMilano has opened its new showroom on London's Great Portland Street, showcasing the firms' latest vision for glass interior architecture.
Great Portland Street is the second SantambrogioMilano showroom, following the opening of the Milan space on via Francesco Sforza, in 2004. The company was created by Carlo Santambrogio in 1992 and was inspired by his work on exhibition design and installations with designers such as AG Franzoni, Carla Scarpa, Claudio Silvestrin and Ennio Arosio.
Arosio is the designer behind the ‘Simplicity' collection of architectural glass designs, which today includes kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room concepts. The introduction of shelving and sliding glass doors enables the construction of a completely enclosed glass environment.
The concept is created from 30mm sheets of glass, manufactured to ensure the highest safety levels and tested to CEE standards. The Simplicity collection is practically limitless in terms of dimension: the designer or architect can create their own personal interpretation of Simplicity in order to realise the final project.
The individual furniture elements do not exist within the space but are an intrinsic part of it, enabling conceptual pieces more akin with architecture than interior design. Supporting and joinery elements are integrated into the individual glass sheets, resulting in a constant purity of line and form.
The glass used for the Simplicity project, provided by Saint Gobain Glass, is called Diamant due to its extreme transparency and is the same used to realize the pyramid of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Each element is constructed from two glass sheets, 15 mm thick. The glass is tempered and stratified with a PVB film of 1.52 mm, ensuring the material meets all safety requirements.
A film can be placed between the two glass sheets (transparent or coloured) making it possible to create pieces in more than 1,000 different colours.
The new London showroom reflects the company's optimistic outlook according to company owner Carlos Santambrogio, both in terms of residential and commercial business.
SantambrogioMilano is currently working on projects around the globe, with an especially strong presence in the Middle East. Current work in progress includes a restaurant in Bari, Italy, a museum project in Abu Dhabi, retail spaces in London, New York and Singapore, as well as a number of private residences.
SantambrogioMilano:www. santambrogiomilano.it
