More than a kitchen: Cesar

Italian kitchen brand Cesar has developed Dressup – a flexible, elegant, modular concept that softens the lines between kitchen and the rest of the home.

By Cesar and Nick Compton for

Cesar

September 2, 2021 | 10:00 pm CUT

Cesar’s new Dressup system means the kitchen can function not only as a home’s social hub, but its design centrepiece

The transformation of the kitchen into stage, gathering place and home-life hub is perhaps the most significant re-modelling of domestic arrangements of the last two decades. Kitchens have become bigger, better equipped, and richer in materials just as architectural borders have broken down and the idea of the kitchen as a defined, sealed-off, strictly functional space has gone up in smoke (smoke and unwanted culinary odours are now dealt with by discreet but super-powerful extractor devices, of course).

Dressup’s material palette smooths the aesthetic and functional shift between kitchen area and living area and opens up new possibilities for balance and flow

There are still ways that the kitchen might evolve though. As elegant and refined as the best contemporary kitchen units, bases, hobs, cookers and what used to be called ‘white goods’ are, they still have a job to do. That functional imperative is hard to ignore. And when the kitchen is set in a more relaxed living area, it can still come off like an uncomfortable and unwanted guest.

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Italian kitchen specialist Cesar has committed itself to making that aesthetic and functional shift between kitchen area and living area less jarring, bringing a greater sense of balance and flow

Italian kitchen specialist Cesar has committed itself to making that aesthetic and functional shift between kitchen area and living area less jarring, bringing a greater sense of balance and flow. Its new Dressup system, the work of Udine-based design Garcia Cumini, establishes a design language and material palette for kitchen bases and wall units that can comfortably and elegantly stretch into other areas and applications. What works for kitchen units and shelving now works just as effectively in other areas of the house. ‘In our projects, we look not only for cohesion and harmony but also versatility,’ says Cinzia Cumini.

Garcia Cumini’s design language for kitchen bases and wall units can be easily applied in other areas of the house

In essence, the idea behind Dressup is simple: if you make your kitchen units, frames and profiles elegant, light and flexible, and in the right mix of materials, they stop being emphatically kitchen fixtures and the same elements can be reconfigured as wall units, shelving units and cabinets anywhere. ‘Dressup’s modularity makes this project versatile. It is easy to use it not only in the kitchen but also in the living area or in smaller places like bathrooms and entrances,’ says Cumini.

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Dressup opens up all kinds of compositional possibilities and can make the kitchen the truly defining feature of your domestic design

Key to the new design is a radical re-alignment she adds, ‘rethinking the standard paradigm of the containment of horizontal drawers’ to create a more open and modular vertical system. The idea works because of the development of thin, sharply elegant profiles, in ribbed aluminium, champagne, black and bronze – and equipped with invisible spaces to accommodate optional features such as LED lighting, accessory hooks and the wiring for sound systems. These were the building blocks of the Dressup system.

The new design allows for more visually arresting splashback and shelf-lining space. Key to the success of Dressup’s design is the development of thin, sharply elegant profiles in ribbed aluminium, champagne, black and bronze

‘We are familiar with aluminium and this material gave us the opportunity to conceive a better performing frame, lighter and thinner and with an essential design,’ says Cumini. ‘It is warm in terms of colouring, but technical. And we need it to easily combine with other materials such as wood, marble and glass.’

The new system also allows for more and more visually arresting splashback and shelf-lining space. And these can be coordinated with a selection of finishes available, from melamine to Fenix, from lacquer and ceramic and from marble to aggregates. Or you can get even more creative with what Cesar calls the Art Collection; a range of panels of different vertical and horizontal layouts featuring details of one of six still lives by Venetian photographer Zaira Zarotti. The photographer – who aims to find the ‘extraordinary in the ordinary’ – worked with Cesar to make sure that each panel framed her images perfectly, working on their own or combined to create a larger composition.

Cesar has worked with Venetian photographer Zaira Zarotti on what it calls the Art Collection, a range of panels of different vertical and horizontal layouts featuring details of Zarotti’s still lives

Indeed Dressup opens up all kinds of compositional possibilities and can make the kitchen the truly defining feature of your domestic design.

Cesar will present Dressup during Milan’s Supersalone in Hall 4, K08 and at the Cesar flagship store, via Larga 23, 5-10 September 2021.