project

Objects by Dutch architect Wiel Arets currently in production include the “Tea & Coffee Towers” silver tea and coffee service (2003), the “Dot” bathroom (in cooperation with the Swiss manufacturers Laufen and the Finnish company Oras, 2007) and the “mix.it” hand blender. Arets, to whom much space was given in the preceding issue of this magazine, is one of the designers in whom we have great hopes for the years to come. It is no coincidence that we entrusted him with the design of a new espresso coffee maker, an object that, as you know, is an archetypal Alessi product and one of the most important items in our catalogues. Wiel’s design takes its place in a series of designer coffee makers that represent milestones in the history of this household item: Sapper’s 9090 (1979), Dalisi’s Napoletana (1987), Rossi’s Conica (1984) and Cupola (1988), the “Mix Italia” by King-Kong (1993), Graves’ “Pelicano” (1995), and Lissoni’s “Pina” (2006). The “coffee.it” espresso coffee maker (along with the “salt.it” salt mill, the “pepper.it” pepper mill and the “screw.it” corkscrew, presented here) express the characteristic design features of this atypical architect, above all his skill in achieving a fine balance between the component parts (though without being minimalist in the detrimental sense) and the inclusion of a high level of intellectual complexity along with practicality and simplicity of forms. I think that his sensitivity in the use of steel in these new designs has led to highly sophisticated results, an expressive intensity that generates the unique feel of Lightness and Consistency that hallmarks his work.