Patricia Urquiola and Federico Pepe created a collection cabinets and room-dividers for Spazio Pontaccio taking inspiration from churches stained glass starting from the Italian word “credenza” that means both “faith / belief” and “cabinet”.
Milan 2016 – Is it possible to have faith in design? Spazio Pontaccio embarked on an “almost theological” challenge to commission a set of furniture that “concealed the orthodoxy of the Milan-based designer Patricia Urqiola, the eresy of communication and the faith for art of Federico Pepe, founder of Le Dictateur”
The result is Credenza, a collection of limited-edition designs including two cabinets and a room divider that feature skillfully crafted stained glass parts inspired by churches. The cabinets feature rounded shapes mounted on thin legs feature a multicoloured stained-glass front side with contemporary patterns.
Invisible joints allow to open doors without compromising the geometrical design that recreate circles and squares broken by caleidoscopic triangles. The room divider takes on from the cabinet designs.
“I always wanted to do something related to churches glass windows” says Alberto Pellini, founder of Spazio Pontaccio. “With Federico Pepe we decided that the design project would have highlighted the higly-skilled tradition of lead-glass craftmanship updating it with contemporary furniture and contemporary patterns”.
“This project stemmed out from previous collaboration with Federico. Initially I thought to Gerhard Richter’s contemporary artwork of the Dome in Koln” says Patricia Urquiola. “The first idea was a cupboard, but then we choose for something smaller, a cabinet or credenza, in Italian. This word that means faith or believe led to a new concept. The concept of believing in forgotten techniques”. The collection is indeed crafted by Italian cratsmen and is focused also on the light passing though – and almost coming from within – the designs.
“I sent to Patricia all the material I had about churches’ stained-glass. Initially I imagined to create profane glass-windows narrating stories of thieves and prostitute instead of saints and angels. But then we opted for a more abstract design” Comments Federico Pepe.