The Experimenters: Antoniolupi

A determination to foster creativity and stretch the limits of technology underpin the success of Italian company Antoniolupi, manufacturer of bathroom fittings and furniture for the entire home. Founded over 60 years ago in Stabbia, near Florence, the proudly Tuscan brand — which makes all its high quality products in Italy — constantly invests in state-of-the-art technology and research and development to realise its uncompromisingly innovative ideas.

One of its core strengths is to challenge our preconceptions of bathroom fittings and other homeware by introducing surprising alternatives to conventional forms. Over the years, Antoniolupi has created many designs that testify to its restlessly experimental approach. One of its key hallmarks is creating intriguing illusions. Witness its arresting, wall-mounted Silenzio washbasin in Corian, designed by Domenico de Palo. This almost ghostly design emerges surreally from the wall, culminating in a lip-shaped basin illuminated by a blue light suggestive of water. The exterior of the sink is seamlessly integrated with the wall, especially when both surfaces are the same colour. The name Silenzio is apt: the basin is a quiet design, almost invisible save for its ethereal glow that gives it a more ambient than physical presence.

An extension of this idea is the brand’s more recent creation, Calice, a sink co-created by de Palo and Mario Ferrarini, which sees basin and wall form a similarly homogeneous surface.

Also chipping away — this time literally — at stereotypes of bathroom fittings is Antoniolupi’s freestanding Introverso sink by Paolo Ulian, hewn out of a block of white Carrara marble. It begins life as a cylindrical form with horizontal incisions. These allow the block to be sculpted, as if chiselled by a sculptor. However, the actual design is shaped using a computer-controlled cutting machine. By penetrating deeper into the horizontal grooves, the machine can sculpt an inner form — for example, the shape of an urn — that is glimpsed through gaps in the outer skin. Like Silenzio, Introverso is intriguingly dematerialised, both pieces opening the way to a radically different approach to bathroom design. Since Introverso can be sculpted to create any number of forms, it also reflects Antoniolupi’s commitment to creating bespoke designs that satisfy every customer’s individual taste.

While the company fosters innovation, its new products sometimes represent an evolution of previous ideas, as demonstrated by some of the 20 or so pieces it launched at the Salone del Mobile this year. These included Ulian’s new, ultra-organic Intreccio washbasin carved, like Introverso, from a block of marble. However, Intreccio’s CNC-sculpted form is more intricate: seen from above, it resembles a basket or flower bud.

Other products at the fair included the Albume washbasin and Reflex bathtub — made of a robust resin called Cristalmood that mimics glass — and Luca Galofaro’s unconventional Collage mirrors — layers of printed glass plates that recall the stratification of images in our memories. The user’s reflection becomes another facet of this unusual design.

Another attraction was the Atelier furniture collection by Ferrarini. Again, the customer is able to personalise this by choosing the handles for it — a simple but effective way to transform its appearance.

Also on show was the wall-mounted mixer tap, Mayday, in a new graphite finish. This causes the water to flow when pulled out, while the temperature is controlled by turning it to the left or right. The accompanying wall or ceiling-mounted Azimut showerhead can be rotated 180°, then remains fixed in the chosen position. Another tap — Indigo by Nevio Tellatin — which Antoniolupi likens to a hummingbird, has a quirky, diagonally positioned tap that disrupts the strict geometry of the right-angled pipe and spout.

In the non-conformist world of Antoniolupi, archetypal shapes in the home are never taken for granted but always open for reinterpretation.

© Architonic