I sit here at my laptop and think. Can I put my thoughts together? I see a blue sky, 30 degrees and humid but this isn’t a tropic island: why is it so hot? Why does my knee ache? Is being 40 years old as fascinating as people keep telling me? I do go on, day in and day out. A few days ago Gianluca suggested to me, “write anything at all”. Wait, I think something moved inside my brain. “Write anything at all!”. It could be the right suggestion! I shift the line of sight from the almost blank page to the passageway right outside my office. Alberto passes by, silently. I guess he is coming back from the frame shop. The clue being the roll of technical drawings he carries.
NASTRO
Elio – face mask hanging around his neck – expresses some perplexity over the colour intensity he is trying to reach in glass. Michela insists – her hand-painted colour charts in her hands. They spar a little. A Nastro comprising five hundred and forty glass elements has to be installed over a staircase. The guys are leaving. “But when will the micro Nastro be ready for the market?”, Denise asks while making some photocopies, always seeking to tip off her clients. Actually, Silvia just put down on my desk the CAD drawings to print in the catalogue. The testing of smaller flexible metal elements was made late spring. The development took some time.
I close the door. My first thought: my office faces a very crowded corridor. Second thought: what happened?
It took a couple of years from very first launch of Nastro into market back in year 2000 to begin to see the process by which its actual limits could be continually formed and reformed. The more questions, the more specific preferences, the more information our Clients submitted really fired our imagination and led us to seriously consider what might be created and actualised in new additional forms. We started wondering about the preferences conveyed. Were they a reflection of the preferences of individuals involved in buying Nastro? Or were they a reflection of cultural experiences and social circumstances? Or, again, were they a reflection of the nature of the product itself? From our own vantage point, we guessed they were a combination of all these factors.
Nastro’s Clients we had since the very beginning – interior designers or architects or private individuals – they are people who experienced a specific need well before the majority. That’s why they have been so important to us. They made it necessary to develop ideas or other practical ways to deal with their needs without changing the essence of the design. As it often happens when looking ahead, too busy and immersed in daily activities, we did not immediately realize that we had just started the process of design research. In fact, our Client’s feedback began to have real meaning as our designers responded. What caught my attention and seemed interesting to me was that the role of our in-house design team was no longer fixed, but was actually changing. Without even being conscious we asked them to take a more pro-active perception in the development of Nastro. And this change, – to a large extent - influenced us all.
I now have the feeling that this was the real initiation of change in the man made glass products we make. Once the essential design is determined, then more specifics of its forms can be conceived. We are getting better and better in expanding the content of our product to match our understanding of design. The earlier edition has focused primarily on usability (2000), then it moved to include pleasure and emotion (2003), and now it includes broader issues and concepts. You only know the non-existing context where to fit a Nastro fixture. You imagine it. This is until now our only vision. Environment changes. It is dynamic. Interiors are subject to change by human intervention, intended or unintended. This meant – and still means – we have to seek to reconceptualize the existing, when talking about Nastro collection. It is a scenario-method of working, suited to generate possible specification-in-context and practices on a different level of sophistication. And what is a scenario but a “what if” story”? The majority of our customized Nastro models – linear, multiple, circular … - often begin with analysis of the context into which Nastro design must fit. Pause. I need a break. 5
The coffee-corner is near my office. In the passageway, of course. Where else could it be? Turn left. Turn right. The espresso machine is where I go to gather most of my thoughts. Whatever the situation I’m facing. I stare at the hazel brown cream trickling down turning into black-brown. Is it just a matter of knowledge? Is it the spectrum of expertise? Well, I believe that any kind of knowledge is personal and any personal knowledge is rendered by expertise.
I slowly sip my coffee. As I contemplate – one by one – people working downstairs, at the furnace come to my mind and then those at the grindstone and then those men in the assembly department. I walk down and look at them going back and forth. Down the stairs the scent is different. Expertise here is not simply a matter of “talent”, but is the result of dedication, motivation, concentration. No romanticism, I’m sorry. But the willingness to work hard on improving performances. Here stands the other side of the nature of human creativity. It is here that our understanding of “experience” is translated into the “look and feel” of our product. How many hours Gianluca and the design team spend here, transmitting a concept, attending the creation of glass prototypes, discussing feasibility. Through Nastro we first experienced the close collaboration between human resources. Not only drawings going up and down the stairs but a process that offers the opportunity for critical discourses, intellectual conversations, basic fundamentals on chemistry, arguments on aesthetics … Such collaborative dialogue had the right effect on the evolution of Nastro as a piece of art. This approach implies a direct experimental encounter with art. So far, I’m sure you will agree with me, we might look at these glass artworks as objects of knowledge in their own right.
Being myself in charge of marketing I know that understanding a market is fundamentally different from understanding what to design. I need to understand what people will buy and how people make their buying decision; the design team instead need to understand what will fit into people’s lives. I believe there is only a limited overlap between these questions. Better for me to have a short walk outside the factory. At the end of the lane there’s the lighthouse. As I said this is not a tropic island but Murano still is an island. I lean on the low wall facing the lagoon. It is still 30° degrees and humid. I rest my mind focusing on the surface of the water. Wait a minute … w a i t a m i n u t e … I don’t know what a Nastro element looks to you but, in this very moment, it looks like curling surf to me (but please let that be our secret!).
Marzia Vianello
6
8 109/HLS/85/AL
s JE T
BLAC K
11
10 9 / WS / 0 2 / AL
s
AGL OW
12 109/HLS/116/AL s
OCEAN BLUE
15
109/HLS/96/AL
s
DESER TA
16 109/HLL/02/AL s
AG LOW
19
109/HLS/111/AL
s
C ITR U S
21
10 9 / WS / 11 3 / AL
s
S UN S TON E
22 109/WSS/110/AL s
NAC AR AT
25
109/HLS/118/AL
s
KAJAL
26 C ELEST E
>
YOGIS
29
10 9 / WS / 8 4 / AL
s
COCCIN EOUS
30 SUBZ ER O
>
OCEAN BL UE
33
10 9 / HL L / 10 8 / AL
s
TAN GERIN E
RO CK C RYSTAL
< 35
AGLO W
36 109/HLS/117/AL s
CELESTE
39
109/HLS/109/AL
s
WISTAR IA
41
C ITR US
42 10 9 / WS / 8 5 / AL s
JET BL ACK
44 109/HLL/79/AS s
LAZU LITE
47
109/HLS/108/AL
s
TANGE RINE
48 10 9 / HL S / 8 3 / AL s
CL ARET
JET BLAC K
< 51
NIMBU S
53
109/WS/118/AL
s
KAJAL
55
109/HLL/109/AL
s
WISTARIA
58 109/HLSS/113/AL s
SUNSTONE
61
109/WS/01/AS
s
SU BZE RO
62 6 OCE AN BLUE
nero traslucido
> 7
SUBZER O
65
109/WS/114/AL
s
ROCK CRYSTAL
109/HLB/85/AB
TANG ERINE
< 67
s
JET BLACK
69
109/HLS/107/AL
s
NIM BUS
70 109/HLL/83/AL s
CLAR ET
72 109/HLS/114/AL s
ROCK CRYSTAL
75
10 9 / WS / 111 / AL
s
CITRUS
E AU-D E-NI L
< 79
LAZ ULIT E
80 109/HLSS/83 s
COC C INEO U S
83
109/WS/116/AL
s
OCEAN BLUE
85
10 9 / HL L / 8 0 / AS
s
YOGIS
86 109/RC SS/82/O S s
CHI CHI
89
109/HLSS/116/AL
s
OCEAN BLUE
91
109/HLL/85/AL
s
JET BLACK
93
SUBZER O
94 DESERTA
>
WIS TARIA
97
109/RCS/84/AS
s
COCCINEOUS
99
10 9 / WS / 8 2 / OS
s
CH ICH I
100 SU NSTONE
>
D ESE RTA
102 109/HLSS/81/AS s
EAU-DE-NIL
104 109/WS/79/AS s
LAZU LITE
106 107
109/R C H/110/AL
s
NACARAT
109
10 9 / WS / 9 0 7 / AL
s
N IMBUS
111
109/HLS/83/AL
s
C LARET
112 113
s
s
1109/HLSS/116/AL
109/HLSS/81/AS
EAU -DE -NIL
OC EAN BLU E
114 109/WS/108/AL s
TANGERINE
CO CC INEOUS
< 117
C HICHI
119
109/HLS/01/AL
s
SU BZE RO
120 109/HLL/111/AL s
C ITRU S
122 10 9 / HL S S / 8 6 / AL s
CY GN ET
125
109/HLSS/02/AL
s
AG LOW
126 109/HLL/83/AL s
C LARE T
128 109/HLSS/01/AL s
SU BZE RO
130 109/HLB/86/AB s
C YG NET
ROCK CRY S TAL
>
133
10 9 / HL L / 8 0 / AS
s
YOGIS
135
109/WS/117/AL
s
CELESTE
136 109/HLS/02/AL s
AG LOW
141
109/HLL/114/AL
s
ROCK CRYSTAL
142 109/WS/112/AL s
M OND AINE
145
10 9 / WS / 9 6 / AL
s
DES ERTA
146 109/HLSS/110/AL s
NAC ARAT
149
10 9 / WS / 10 9 / AL
s
WIS TARIA
150 109/HLS/02/AS s
AG LOW
152 109/HLSS/113/AS s
ROCK CRYSTAL
154 10 9 / WS / 8 3 / AL s
CL ARET
157
109/HLL/112/AL
s
MO ND AINE
158
161
164
167
168
JET BLACK s
109/CLB/85/AL 170
The past four years have confirmed to be an important
All of the Company’s collections have benefited
I’m particularly grateful to all the employees and
period in the history of Andromeda. Notwithstanding
from management’s strategic focus on creativity;
workers whose commitment and professionalism has
the strong growth realized in the past and the difficult
evidenced by an extended product offering
enabled Andromeda to achieve the results and to affect
economic environment, Andromeda continues its growth.
including complimentary lines, and an increasingly
the transformation into a professionally managed, well
Organic growth was driven primarily by the Company’s
important flash products.
diversified, international Company.
core business: contemporary design. In particular, the
Also, the Company’s continued international
Nastro collection continues to improve brand awareness
expansion program has been instrumental in
Marzia Vianello
and an increasingly loyal customer base.
driving growth.
Director of Marketing & Business Development
171
Andromeda’s vision is to be leader in INNOVATION for the hand-made glass environment through the KNOWLEDGE and EXPERTISE in design and production. Our philosophy is founded on the commitment to achieve excellence, while satisfying the needs of each Client and reaching solutions that respond to their context. This vision is matched today by the exclusive co-operation and creativity of the world most celebrated designers. In our nearly thirty five years of practice we have undergone immense growth and significant changes from classical Venetian tradition up to the extreme use of hand-made glass. Today we are an entrepreneurial firm, flat and non-hierarchical, that emphasizes team work, innovation and creation of real value. Andromeda today is comprised of people who steel feel the passion and zeal of our original vision. We have organized ourselves around our Clients, and our
Company’s Profile
goal is to work effectively with them wherever they have a presence. At Andromeda, design is not an abstract exercise in combining shapes, forms and materials. Whatever a project’s size or budget, we are just as comfortable working with a retailer across the street as we are enlightening an hospitality resort on the other side of the world.
The firm has conceived, designed, produced and fitted for corporate offices, banking and financial institutions; government buildings; residential environments; leisure and hospitality industry; public and private institutions.
The goal is to provide the highest level of quality and design for all of our Clients on each and every project. The talents of our designers, backed by our company’s key teams give us the skill to integrate the complex technical requirements with the more subjective aesthetic and psychological perceptions of light.
50 St. James London Clubs London
174
177
178
181
182
Boutique Celleno Rome (Italy)
Private Bank (U.S.A.)
Hotel Ixian Grand Rhode (Greece)
Hotel Ixian Grand Rhode (Greece)
Las Dunas Hotel Marbella (Spain)
Jewellery Leicht Pforzheim (Germany)
Private Bank (U.S.A.)
Private house Mouille Point (South Africa)
Private Bank (U.S.A.)
I believe understanding artistic research and the role it may play in design is one of the key challenges of our times. The combination of both helped me discover how my Company could actually move forward a conceptual knowledge which would enhance our overall quality production. The natural emphasis on authenticity and originality which permeates Andromeda’s way of working makes Nastro available for the cult value of non-reproducible. This means you should try to imagine a shape, to imagine a nuance.
Gianluca Vecchi President
I was given a great deal of freedom in interpreting, changing and improving Nastro. Amused and perplexed at the same time, I kept true to the glass element designed by Afra & Tobia Scarpa of course, though clearly defining and affirming its existence in the spatial environment: the world. As an artist I approached the Nastro in terms of shape first: the quality of such an “object” depends on the constant relations of position and proportionate distance among all the points composing its outline. From this point of view Nastro offered me endless compositional possibilities depending upon my mood, imagination, sense of discovery and theory of colour. To this latter, I applied my study and research, being the colour a formal property of art and a property of object, intended as a key component in picturing space and therefore establishing space and shape in terms others than dimension or with no explicit references to dimension. My goal was to create a sort of colours palette. When you dip and coalesce a paintbrush into a colour, or in more than one colour, something amazing happens: this gesture is the very new dimension of an artwork. You see, a structure may suggest a colour but a colour may suggest a zillion of worlds. Make yourself the question: which is the limit of a shade of blue, or of a shade of yellow? It looks like a koan zen as there’s no answer. Colour goes always beyond the sign. And what happens if you run after a shade? It happens that you will probably see a world (a structure) no one else see, no one else even imagine but that can be realized.
Michela Vianello Painter & Sculptor
187
Technical session
Colours 01
82
96
112
83
107
113
02
84
108
114
79
85
109
116
80
86
110
117
81
01
SUBZERO
02
AGLOW
79
LAZULITE
80
YOGIS
81
EAU-DE-NIL
82
CHICHI
83
CLARET
84
COCCINEOUS
85
JET BLACK
86
CYGNET
87
SATORI
96
DESERTA
107
NIMBUS
108
TANGERINE
109
WISTARIA
110
NACARAT
111
CITRUS
112
MONDAINE
113
SUNSTONE
114
ROCK CRYSTAL
116
OCEAN BLUE
117
CELESTE
118
KAJAL
87
111
118
NASTRO 109 - HLL
ITEM CODE: SIZES: BULBS:
109 / HLL “NASTRO” Ø 1300 mm - 51” H 1800 mm - 70” G9 - 20 x 40 W /220 V MAX
WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
ITEM CODE: SIZES: BULBS:
109 / HLS “NASTRO” Ø 800 mm - 31” H 1000 mm - 39” FROSTED CLASSE 1 - CE
FROSTED CLASSE 1 - CE
USA: G9 - 12 x 40 W /110 V MAX
USA: G9 - 20 x 40 W /110 V MAX
FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs:
NASTRO 109 - HLS
80 115 KG
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs: WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
52 80 KG SHINY NICKEL
SHINY NICKEL
OPAQUE NICKEL
OPAQUE NICKEL
OPAQUE GOLD
OPAQUE GOLD
192
193
NASTRO 109 - HLSS
ITEM CODE: SIZES: BULBS:
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs: WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
194
109 / HLSS “NASTRO” Ø 600 mm - 24” H 680 mm - 28” G9 - 6 x 40 W /220 V MAX
NASTRO 109 - RCL
ITEM CODE: SIZES: BULBS:
109 / RCL “NASTRO” Ø1500 mm - 59” H 900 mm - 35” G9 - 20 x 40 W /220 V MAX
FROSTED CLASSE 1 - CE
FROSTED CLASSE 1 - CE
USA: G9 - 6 x 40 W /110 V MAX
USA: G9 - 20 x 40 W /110 V MAX
FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
18 15 KG SHINY NICKEL
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs: WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
80 100 KG SHINY NICKEL
OPAQUE NICKEL
OPAQUE NICKEL
OPAQUE GOLD
OPAQUE GOLD
195
NASTRO 109 - RCS
ITEM CODE: SIZES: BULBS:
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs: WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
196
109 / RCS “NASTRO” Ø1000 mm - 39” H 600 mm - 24” G9 - 12 x 40 W /220 V MAX
NASTRO 109 - RCSS
ITEM CODE: SIZES: BULBS:
109 / RCSS “NASTRO” Ø 450 mm - 18” H 200 mm - 4” G9 - 4 x 40 W /220 V MAX
FROSTED CLASSE 1 - CE
FROSTED CLASSE 1 - CE
USA: G9 - 12 x 40 W /110 V MAX
USA: G9 - 4 x 40 W /110 V MAX
FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
52 65 KG SHINY NICKEL
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs: WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
12 21 KG SHINY NICKEL
OPAQUE NICKEL
OPAQUE NICKEL
OPAQUE GOLD
OPAQUE GOLD
197
NASTRO 109 - WS
ITEM CODE: SIZES:
BULBS:
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs: WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
198
109 / WS “NASTRO” Ø 700 mm - 27”
NASTRO 109 - WSS
ITEM CODE: SIZES:
109 / WSS “NASTRO” Ø 500 mm - 20”
H 700 mm - 27”
H 500 mm - 20”
DEPTH 50 mm - 20”
DEPTH 30 mm - 12”
G9 - 7 x 40 W /220 V MAX
BULBS:
G9 - 4 x 40 W /220 V MAX
FROSTED CLASSE 1 - CE
FROSTED CLASSE 1 - CE
USA: G9 - 7 x 40 W /110 V MAX
USA: G9 - 4 x 40 W /110 V MAX
FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
18 20 KG SHINY NICKEL
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs: WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
8 9 KG SHINY NICKEL
OPAQUE NICKEL
OPAQUE NICKEL
OPAQUE GOLD
OPAQUE GOLD
199
NASTRO 109 - HLB
ITEM CODE: SIZES: BULBS:
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs: WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
200
109 / HLB “NASTRO” Ø1600 mm - 63” H 2500 mm - 98” G9 - 54 x 40 W /220 V MAX
NASTRO 109 - HLF
ITEM CODE: SIZES: BULBS:
109 / HLF “NASTRO” Ø 900 mm - 35” H 2600 mm - 102” G9 - 60 x 40 W /220 V MAX
FROSTED CLASSE 1 - CE
FROSTED CLASSE 1 - CE
USA: G9 - 54 x 40 W /110 V MAX
USA: G9 - 60x 40 W /110 V MAX
FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
192 350 KG SHINY NICKEL
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs: WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
234 400 KG SHINY NICKEL
OPAQUE NICKEL
OPAQUE NICKEL
OPAQUE GOLD
OPAQUE GOLD
201
NASTRO 109 - CLB ITEM CODE: SIZES:
109 / CLB “NASTRO” L 2700 mm - 106” H 800 mm - 31” DEPTH 700 mm - 27”
BULBS:
G9 - 36 x 40 W /220 V MAX FROSTED CLASSE 1 USA: G9 - 36 x 40 W /110 V MAX FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs: WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
154 214 KG SHINY NICKEL OPAQUE NICKEL OPAQUE GOLD
NASTRO 109 - CLL ITEM CODE: SIZES:
109 / CLL “NASTRO” L 1500 mm - 59” H 800 mm - 31” DEPTH 700 mm - 27”
BULBS:
G9 - 24 x 40 W /220 V MAX FROSTED CLASSE 1 - CE USA: G9 - 24 x 40 W /110 V MAX FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs: WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
80 120 KG SHINY NICKEL OPAQUE NICKEL OPAQUE GOLD
202
203
NASTRO 109 - RCH
ITEM CODE: SIZES:
109 / RCH “NASTRO” Ø EXT 2000 mm - 79” Ø INT. H 500 mm - 20”
BULBS:
G9 - 48 x 40 W /220 V MAX FROSTED CLASSE 1 - CE USA: G9 - 48 x 40 W /110 V MAX FROSTED CLASS 1 - UL LISTED
Nr. OF GLASS NASTROs: WEIGHT: AVAILABLE FRAMES:
144 230 KG SHINY NICKEL OPAQUE NICKEL OPAQUE GOLD
204
205
NASTRO Design Afra & Tobia Scarpa
Artistic implementation Michela Vianello
Technical development Alberto Furtak Silvia Mormiro
Special thanks to 50 Saint James’ – London Clubs Boutique Celleno Hotel Ixian Grand Jewellery Leicht Las Dunas Hotel Shutterstock
For information about Andromeda’s commercial network please browse our website www.andromedamurano.it or write to: marzia@andromedamurano.it
Creation and general coordination Diego Lazzarini Design - Venezia info@diegolazzarinidesign.com General lay-out Diego Lazzarini Design - Venezia Contributions by Pietro Menozzi Giovanni Lazzarini Photographs by © Diego Lazzarini 2007 - all rights reserved Diego Lazzarini Design - Venezia Texts Marzia Vianello Gianluca Vecchi Michela Vianello
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing of copyright holders.
Print Grafiche Veneziane - Venezia
All the products of “Nasto” Collection are registered products of Andromeda International S.r.l.
Printed in Venice, January 2007