Hospitality Design - May 2013 - 157

products

proﬁle

federico
delrosso
By Ashleigh VanHouten
Photography by Luca De Santis, Federico Delrosso, and Teresa
Laughlin

1

SEEING THE LIGHT
An Italian designer follows his heart

“I’ve only ever worked for myself; I’ve never
had to interpret someone else’s vision,”
says Italian architect and product designer
Federico Delrosso. Sounds like a dream for
any artist, but it’s always been Delrosso’s
process—he grew up learning about
construction and architecture through his
father’s business and spending time with his
grandfather, who was a millworker. He even
has one of his grandfather’s wooden desks
in his Milan office (Delrosso has another
space in Biella, Italy, and recently opened a
Long Island City, New York studio). While
working independently as an architect, he
became interested in designing the interiors
of the private residences he built, and then,
naturally, the products that would go in
them—especially when he couldn’t find the
right pieces readily available on the market.
Delrosso continues to work on private
and hospitality projects, saying he enjoys
both because they involve “different
obligations, criteria, functions; but
hospitality is more free, you can create
more. A hotel is like a shell that contains
everything—bedroom, bathroom, living

2
1. Delrosso sits at his
communal dining table,
Moebius.

space, entertainment space.” His first
hospitality project, in 2002, was Monaco
restaurant Pacific, where he transformed a
traditional Italian eatery into one of the first
fusion restaurants in the area, reflecting the
contemporary feel with a dramatic white
Corian central bar counter. The designer and
his small team also just finished a proposal
for an eco-friendly bakery in Monte Carlo,
and completed a watch store in Milan—a
tiny, vertical space with slightly skewed,
sloping walls that create the perception of a
larger space.
On the products side, Delrosso created
a collection of sheet-metal chairs for
furniture distributor Atmosfera Italiana,
and collaborated with Henry Timi on light
metal stools and tables, including Moebius,
designed with communal dining in mind.
The Palpbera light Delrosso designed for
Davide Groppi (aptly, the name means
eyelid) is a truncated cone of painted metal
and produces a soft, indirect light.
With his ability to seamlessly blend both

2. Clean-lined stools, a
collaboration with Henry
Timi, are made from
sheet metal.

3
3. Delrosso’s “Dining
Tank” installation for
DIFFA’s 2013 Dining By
Design event.

his own clean design aesthetic and the vision
of his partners and clients, Delrosso looks
forward to the problem-solving aspect of his
job: “The most challenging project is always
the next one,” he laughs.
Speaking of challenges, Delrosso recently
completed his “Dining Tank” installation
for DIFFA’s 2013 Dining by Design event in
New York, inspired by the ubiquitous water
towers around Manhattan and proposing a
use for these out-of-use spaces as an—pun
intended—untapped hospitality resource.
The water tower structure itself is easily
constructed, composed of simple planks of
fragrant red cedar.
As with many designers, his products are
less about a look and more about a feeling.
“Good lighting, for example, makes you
feel good,” Delrosso says. “It creates energy,
brightness, and makes you happy to be in
that space.” hd
fed eri cod elrosso.com

hospitalitydesign.com May 2013

157
http://www.federicodelrosso.com http://www.hospitalitydesign.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - May 2013
