In The 50th Issue of est magazine, we asked ten of the world’s most in-demand architects and designers to share their five era-defining products.
Ludovica and Roberto Palomba founded their Milan-based architecture and design studio, Palomba Serafini Associati, in 1994. The design duo have collaborated with several leading brands on designing products through their signature ‘controlled lexicon’.
The Doge table by Carlo Scarpa, designed in 1968, is a form of architecture in itself for Palomba Serafini Associati. “Scarpa’s design is an architectural structure akin to the skeleton of a building that is yet to be constructed,” Ludovica says. The Stylos lamp by Achille Castiglioni was also selected for its architectural language. “The lamp seamlessly integrates into the architectural space while remaining an absolute protagonist,” Ludovica adds.
The Lama chair, “a domestic icon” Ludovica and Roberto Palomba designed for Zanotta, was conceived as a warm embrace. Also designed by the pair, the Kizo, Mata and Swazi rugs for cc-tapis are akin to watercolour paintings by 19th-century travellers. “The fragments of colours, fabrics, and materials give life to tribal patterns and the manes of strange, fantastical animals,” Roberto describes.
The designers chose the Traccia table by Meret Oppenheim for Cassina because it serves little but to bring happiness. “It stands as an independent object that can coexist within both a maximalist and minimalist interior,” Roberto adds.
Ludovica and Roberto Palomba | Photography by Carlo W. Rossi & Fabio Mureddu Photography
