3 August 2009

On 23rd July  2009 at Milan’s La Rinascente department store, the Design Supermarket was presented: a new floor entirely given over to design objects, and itself designed in its entirety by 1+1=1, professionally known as Claudio Silvestrin Giuliana Salmaso architects.
Over one hundred companies are represented on the new floor. Some brands have gone so far as to set up a shop-in-shop, and these have been designed by major design studios.
Obviously Alessi has to be part of this project and, after Alessandro Mendini’s design of several of our shops worldwide, particularly Tokyo and London, Hani Rashid in Soho New York and Martí Guixé for the new Shop Museum on Paris’s Rive Gauche, this project was given to Stefano Giovannoni. The salient characteristic of this new display system is the high perimeter panels in sheet metal, into which are cut gigantic icons of cult Alessi products. This texture lends itself to the attachment of articulated glass shelves on which the products are displayed.
The shop-in-shop display is completed by central gondola elements also in pierced sheet metal and fitted out on both sides, and a system of horizontal tables on which a series of glass shelves can be affixed.

On 21st July 2009 Alessi opened its new Shop inside Singapore’s latest luxurious retail centre the Ion Orchard in the city’s most exclusive shopping district. Designed by London based architecture studio Benoy, the mall features an imposing façade with  gigantic multimedia screens whilst the wide spaces inside host cultural events and exhibitions. The new Alessi Shop in Singapore is 70 sqm and presents a display system conceived by Alessandro Mendini.

On 7th June 2009 Alessi opened its first Shop in Cairo’s brand new lifestyle destination called Designopolis on the main street connecting Cairo to Alexandria. Designopolis gathers several design and furnishing companies in the attempt to present design as a contemporary form of art with an eye to ancient Egyptian civilization. The newly opened Alessi Shop measures approx. 80 sqm.

On 28th May Alessi launched its first Ireland concession at Brown Thomas, Dublin, Ireland’s most important shopping destination since 1849 with addresses in Cork, Limerick and Galway too. The 35 square metre space is the largest Alessi Shop in Ireland to date in Grafton Street, Dublin’s exclusive shopping area.