Studio visit

T h e Ro p e Wa l ke r

In Guglielmo Poletti’s offices: an ethereal space suspended between poetics and experimentation. Where getting back to the essence of the project is king

by Paola Carimati — photos by Delfino Sisto Legnani

Born in 1987, Guglielmo Poletti left Eindhoven to return to Milan after graduating in Contextual Design. In 2019, buoyed by his professional successes, he devoted himself to designing his own studio and transformed a former construction workshop into a bright white box.

The star of the studio is the birch plywood ‘modular office unit’ created by the Milanese designer in the joiner’s workshop of Giacomo Moor. Like a dashboard, on the ground floor it integrates bed, wardrobe and storage units with trolley, and supports a desk as well as a storage and meditation space.

The wooden platform designed by Guglielmo Poletti is creatively custom-made: from here the designer dominates the space to shape the world

Above, a close-up of the mezzanine structure: the heroes are the black chairs designed by Maarten van Severen for Vitra and the Parentesi lamps by Achille Castiglioni and To-Tie by Guglielmo Poletti, both for Flos. Below, the ‘modular office unit’ behind closed doors.

The To-Tie lamp by Flos portrayed next to the bed and on the desk. “Each component has a dual purpose”, says the designer: “The cable carries electricity and is a tensioning element; the bar integrates the LED and acts as a handle; the cylinder holds the bar and diffuses light”. “Without reflecting properly on the structural aspect, for me, the project doesn’t exist”, more than a statement, there is the suspicion that this is a manifesto of intent from the young advocate of the international, creative nouvelle vague. In fact, a cursory glance, crossing the threshold of Guglielmo Poletti’s offices, does not betray his words: the interior has been studied down to the last millimetre, organised and as neat as a new pin. Outside there are the suburbs: we are in the Via Padova area, north of Milan, in that ‘extreme’ part of the city involved in far-sighted plans for urban and creative regeneration. Not surprisingly, not far away are the headquarters of Formafantasma and, just a stone’s throw from the joiner’s workshop of his friend Giacomo Moor. When in 2019 the designer decided to leave Eindhoven, in the Netherlands where he graduated, to return to Italy, he had no doubt about the type of space he intended to carve out: “Architecture and furnishings follow functions”, he explains as he guides us around the 170-square metre property. “At the Design Academy, I learned to combine more conceptual exploration of design with a more manual aspect. So, I imagined dividing the floorplan into three areas: a first one, where I can collect ideas and bring thoughts together, a second, where I can create and prototype them, and a third where I can provide a home for them”. Thus, with the complicity of Covid and Pino, the prior owner of the former building materials warehouse, Guglielmo transformed an urban archaeological industrial building into a white, abstract and very light-filled container, inside which his lets the ‘modular office unit’ coast: a lightweight and resistant birch plywood structure that, designed in 3D and made by his friend Moor, fits perfectly along the short side of the building. “A bridge from where I coordinate all activities”, he says oozing the pride of those who have put their hands, head and heart into a job. “The module has been developed on two levels: below, next to the bedroom, the wardrobe with three storage elements and pull-out

trolleys, above, the desk with bookcase and meditation platform”, strictly made of glass for filtering the light. Designing for Guglielmo Poletti is primarily all about linear thinking, combined with design rigour and an almost maniacal attention to detail. An obsession, the latter, that is not overlooked when changing scale but, on the contrary, is proudly amplified. In the Made in Italy system, from the start of his career, he has moved forward taking small, steady and decisive steps. From the collaboration with Desalto, strongly advocated by art director Gordon Guillaumier, to the most recent professional liaison with Flos, launched in full lockdown by Calvi Brambilla, design curator of the brand, without overlooking the support of gallery owner Rossana Orlandi, who was the first to promote his work: every random or planned encounter helped to forge his identity as a designer, edging him progressively away from art and towards the industrial, exploring the series process. “Credit goes to Louise Schouwenberg, Head of Department of the MA Contextual Design course at the Dutch school”, Poletti recalls, “who, recognising an already well-defined trait in my work, urged me to reflect on the ‘reasons’: what is the rationale behind the aesthetic aspect of your shapes? So, I focused on the building part”. The leaner the process, the more it expresses the natural beauty of the material. His exploration revolves around millimetric considerations: sheets, multilayers and glass, which, put under a tensioning force, yield to creativity without becoming deformed. The choice of processing techniques — all precision processes — then completes the work. “Calendering, grinding and welding are the criteria that enable me to approach any type of product”, says the designer, who, from the Equilibrium stool, made of polyurethane rubber, to the To-Tie lamp, with bar, cable and acrylic diffuser, demonstrates the consistency of his language. “Nothing is arbitrary, everything has a rationale”. Otherwise, it would not be his project. —

Next to the close-up of the Section bench for the Seeds gallery, which reveals the complexity of working with a calendered, welded and polished Corten sheet metal, two other unmissable pieces by Guglielmo Poletti: the Void console for Desalto and the Equilibrium seat for Rossana Orlandi.