Take a tour of Minotti’s modernist virtual retreat

Every year, Italian furniture company Minotti creates a virtual setting to present its new 2020 collection to architects, interior designers and creative professionals. Conceived by the company’s Co-CEO, Roberto Minotti, who trained as an architect before joining the family company, the imaginary environments serve as a context to the new pieces as they are presented to the world.

‘I come from an architecture background, that was my passion way before furniture, so for me it is most interesting to present our furniture inside an architecture,’ explains Minotti. ‘Every year we have worked not only on the collection, but also on the atmosphere through which to present it. We have given different moods to these environments, offering new ways to interpret the product: a virtual exercise that enhances each product’s function.’

Californian virtual resort

This year, the concept has acquired new meaning, becoming a tool for escapism as people were confined at home, offering a way to show the collection to design professionals worldwide as travel restrictions took place, but also offering an important insight into the company’s world.

The backdrop to the resort are the hills, cliffs and beaches of Carmel by the Sea, and the rich Californian vegetation surrounding it. It’s an area that has traditionally offered inspiration to Minotti as an architect, who has admired the modernist structures of Richard Neutra (and also looking further afield, to Mies Van Der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright) and the simplified forms that are in constant dialogue between the indoors and outdoors - a poigniant theme for Minotti.

The architectural creation is titled The Club, and is conceived as a Seaview Resort and Lodges, featuring a space that blends indoor and outdoor, hospitality and residential spaces, bringing to life the versatility of the new range. It’s a structure of pure volumes and clean geometries, which develops over a cliffside with split levels and views over the sea.

‘This year we created something that is very close to our historical savoir-faire,’ explains Minotti. ‘With an architecture that is linear, square, and using materials such as stone, wood and glass. Like our furniture, it features simple forms that are enriched by quality materials and finishes: from an essential shape we create something that has a strong depth of quality.’ 

New Minotti 2020 collection

Terraces, decks and pools set the stage for the outdoor collections, while the indoor pieces are displayed across lounges, restaurants and cocktail bars overlooking the sea. ‘The backbone of the collection itself is the fluid and continuous passage between indoor and outdoor,’ adds Minotti, citing a strong aesthetic coherence between the pieces – something the brand has developed carefully throughout the recent collections, and that is brought to life by the carefully considered architecture.

The Minotti 2020 collection shown across the resort features new pieces by the brand’s creative director Rodolfo Dordoni, as well as furniture by Nendo, Marcio Kogan / studio mk27, GamFratesi and Christophe Delcourt. They are well-crafted, considered pieces that bear the signature style of their creators brought together under the exquisite, serious craftsmanship of Minotti.

Blending into the environment, the pieces complete and complement the spaces of The Club. Highlights include the Daiki chairs, by Marcio Kogan / studio mk27, inspired by his travels to Japan and featuring 1960s-inspired silhouettes, new sartorial sofas by Dordoni, and the Fynn collection of chairs by GamFratesi, merging Scandinavian sensitivity with Italian savoir faire. 

‘The collection is characterized by simple volumes, which have been enriched by the special attention to details and materials,’ observes Minotti. ‘We have created an architecture to reflect this.’

INFORMATION

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