"Proposing a concept store as a vignette, created to be contemplative (look but don’t touch), is not what the public expects today. It’s very important to design for interactivity, inviting the customer to enter the space, feel the materials, understand all the components."
Internationally renowned Italian architect, Giorgio Borruso is noted for his innovative designs that challenge and surprise, merging functionality and ergonomics in an experiential and visual style, with works ranging from architecture to interiors and industrial design. Since 2000, when he relocated his firm to Venice, Los Angeles, Borruso’s work has been featured in more than 600 publications around the world and has received over 100 international awards in architectural design and brand development.
Some of Borruso’s most famous projects are the innovative concept stores for Snaidero USA, Miss Sixty, Fila, Fornarina, Carlo Pazolini, Lord & Taylor and fashion icon, Paul Frank.
The partnership with Snaidero USA started in 2005 when the company’s President & CEO, Dario Snaidero hired Borruso to design the three corporate showrooms in Los Angeles, Miami-Coral Gables, and New York. All three designs stem from the idea of creating a space where architectonical and design elements work together to create a fluid path that takes the visitor through the exploration of the Snaidero kitchens.
For Snaidero USA Los Angeles, this came in the form of a vortex of ribbons that unfolds through the space, compressing and decompressing it. The showroom won the ISP/VM SD International Store Design Award, the Good Design™ Award, and DDI’s Best New Retail Space and Most Unique Store Awards (2005).
The Snaidero USA Coral Gables showroom features eighteen simple lines – inspired by the aerial root system of a particular plant, the Ficus Magnolioides - moving threedimensionally through the space to define different areas and carry information about the company and the kitchens on display. The design won the Interior Design Magazine’s Best of the Year Award (2007), the Association of Retail Environments’ Design Award, the Red Dot Award, and the International Architectural Award (2008).
In the Snaidero USA New York design, lines of tile dart out across the floors departing, as do the lighting fixtures, from the center of the space, where a wall of horizontal panels transcend into the air displaying kitchen door samples in a variety of lively colors. A wall of black slate invites visitors to leave a message written in chalk, as a way to interact and communicate with the space. The New York Showroom won Chain Store Age’s Annual Retail Store of the Year Award, Interior Design Magazine’s Best of the Year Merit Award (2009), and a Honorable Mention at the I.D. Annual Design Review Awards (2010).
