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Caffè Populaire

DWA Design Studio (Space) + Lambert & Fils (Lighting)

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Client
Lambert & Fils and DWA Design Studio
Floor area
165.00 ㎡
Completion
2019

Caffè Populaire began as a means to disrupt the expectations of traditional design exhibitions. Amidst the hustle of Milan’s design week, we sought to offer sanctuary, hospitality, and genuine human connection — coupled with the inspiring forms of two new contemporary lighting collections.
The custom U-table was made from pre-cast slabs of Silipol fragments composed in a palladiana pattern— an hommage to the Milan entryways. A circular standing bar featured white and green terrazzo and was lit by the circle of Hutchinson lamps, forming with their thin strings an invisible column. The coloured layers of glass of the Sainte lamps created an abstract 'painting' against the rectangular tactile plaster backdrop on the wall. A silver column contained a red room where the older lamp collections were showed, all executed in raw aluminium.
Also the wall that hid the kitchen was clad with a silver screen fabric normally used as sunscreens for greenhouses.
The structure of the community table and all stools also received a tactile plaster finish in pale green.
Meals were served on Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance’s Caractère collection, designed for Revol and tables were decorated with bronze flora blocks created by the emerging Toronto design studio Mercury Bureau.
In addition to the regular public hours, Caffè Populaire also hosted Dinner Populaire, where an experimental limited-edition pasta by Milanese creative studio Casalinghe di Tokyo and designer Chiara Andreatti was served.