In the frame: Eclisse

When Mies Van der Rohe appropriated the phrase ‘Less is More’ encouraging us to distil the four walls we live between to their most minimal state, he perhaps didn’t reckon on our eventual lassitude for the perfectly uniform box. Minimalism endures architecturally, but a desire to subtly enhance its corners, detail the edges, warm the angles and break its monotony has brought us to an age of sculptural minimalism, where a detail as basic as the shape of window ledge or doorframe, can transform the character of an interior.

Eclisse is an Italian company that specialises in the manufacture of finely engineered doors and frames, and with its latest innovative release, it is bringing just such sculptural depth to contemporary doorframes. Founded in 1989, Eclisse’s legacy is the workshops of metal carpenter Luigi De Faveri, and his drive for perfectionism endures in the company today. It has built a following for its slide pocket doors and flush-to-the-wall designs, but the latest product is something of a departure: an angled aluminium doorframe that indents doors, bringing attention to an architectural feature that has been intentionally minimised for so long.

‘We want to inspire a new love for the door amongh the general public. And by “public”, we mean architects, professionals and end-users. We hope that this product will be the beginning of a new door concept,’ say the Eclisse 40 designers, Francesco Valentini and Lorenzo Ponzelli. ‘This is because, except in rare cases, the door is an element that is seen and conceived as a purely functional object.’

The Ancona-based designers Valentini and Ponzelli initiated the idea for the angled frame while deeply probing the purpose and potential of doors and how they might evolve from minimal flush-to-the-wall construction. ‘Certain that creativity arises from the negation of a possibility, or from necessity itself, we imagined something that would leave a sign of its presence, a decorative element,’ say the duo. ‘This had to be done not by adding, but by removing material, and the visible had to be created from the invisible. All this without neglecting the functional and practical aspect: we also wanted to create a protective element for the sharp edges between the wall and the door.’

Inspiration also came from the past. The design partners observed that in Romanesque and Gothic buildings, walls on either side of windows often flare out towards the interior of a room, in order to direct as much light as possible inside when the windows themselves are small. It’s an historical detail called a ‘splay’, that is functional but also decorative.

The designers presented their vision to develop the splay into a feature for modern doorways to Eclisse, who embraced the idea and have taken the idea forward into a fine industrialised product using its highly technical engineering expertise. Made from anodised aluminium, the frame is a self-contained unit that slants inwards at a 40-degree angle from wall to door. It is made to sit into both solid and stud walls, its internal fixing chamber reinforcing the single structure and safeguarding the 40-degree angle. For fixing it flush to the wall, precision is everything, with the horizontal and vertical surfaces of the frame meeting in sharp, clean angles.

The anodised finish gives additional resistance against wear and tear, including scratches and stains, and also facilitates painting, allowing flexibility in the finish. ‘In monochromatic minimal, you can play on the shadows produced by the sloping frame or you can opt for maximum customisation by working on both the door panel and the aluminium frame,’ say the designers. For example, a wall and door panel made of Calacatta marble and the frame is visible in gold.

Whether your stamp on modern minimalism is through the introduction of opulent materials, or through a play of sculptural shadows, Eclisse 40 gives us new tools with which to shape our walls.

© Architonic