The production for this series takes into consideration a method of design where research of new forms originates from the choice of function: a slim silhouette, non invasive, easily adaptable, a sign of optimism. 

The door handle, at rest, is turned upwards to meet the hand. 

The gesture of opening is obtained through rotating the grip downwards through 90°.

The project also includes a window handle with only a vertical segment to be delicately rotated for opening.

I was surprised when it came to selecting doorknobs and handles and other hardware for our projects how few designs today are carved or cut out in relief.

The curved and sleek flowing shapes seem to be the norm.

The traditional and classical knobs and handles relied on ornamental decoration and motifs for grasping and to complement the design of the door.

It was my desire to design a handle that was a modern interpretation of these earlier shapes.

The clean, simple form of the knob and handle more angular in its appearance with sculpted cut-outs has provided a shape easy to grasp, yet sensual to the touch.

Aldo Rossi lived in Milan, New York, and Lake Maggiore.

He graduated in architecture in Milan and then began an academic career. He was appointed as a professor at Palermo and Milan universities.

For three years he was a University lecturer at the “Federal Polytechnics” in Zurich and Venice.

He was a visiting Professor in the U.S.A., at Harvard, Rice, Yale and Cranbrook. His most important buildings have been constructed in Germany, Italy, Holland, England, U.S.A. and Japan.

The structure of these door handles is in brass.

The door handles and knobs are in porcelain, sycamore wood, satin brass, or satin chrome. The accessories have the mysterious capacity to match all different styles.
Being both classic and contemporary, they adapt to very different environments.

The doorknob and the window handle complement the AP Duemila collection, in addition to a small keyhole escutcheon and bathroom locks.

The handles series AM Novantadue is the result of a research project where attention towards the ergonomic aspect is translated into a configuration of objects which gives full expression to the way in which they are used, and also to the formal view point. Each handle, with its own individuality, goes back to a family of shapes, of which the hand and its gestures form the generating matrix.

The door handle recalls the profile of the hand in a gesture of grasping and of pushing downwards.

In the same way, the window handle adapts itself to the fist that closes on it to impress a torsion.

My work on handles involves the redesign of classic models studying the small details and new proportions which then become the characteristic elements.

Pierluigi Cerri is graduated from Politecnico in Milan.
In 1974 he was a partner-founder of Gregotti Associati.
A member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale, he was responsible for the image of the Biennale in Venice.

He was editor of the magazines: “Casabella” and “Rassegna”.

Among his projects there are several expositions in the most important museums such as: “IDZ” in Berlin, “Palazzo della Promotrice delle Belle Arti” in Turin, “Centre Georges Pompidou” in Paris, “Palazzo a Vela” in Turin, “Design Zentrum” in Stuttgart and Berlin, “Sogetsu Kaikan” in Tokyo, “Lingotto” in Turin, Museum of Contemporary Arts” in Madrid, “Accademia di Brera” in Milan, “Science Museum” in London, “Forte del Belvedere” in Florence, “Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle” in Bonn , “Palazzo Grassi” in Venice, “Palazzo Reale” in Milan, “Nationalgalerie” in Berlin, “Moderna Museet” in Stockholm, “Musée d’Art Moderne” in Paris, “Triennale” in Milan.

With Gregotti & Associati he won a number of Architectural competitions, such as: the Cultural Centre in Lisbon, the transformation of the Pirelli area at Bicocca, Milan, and the redecoration of the area for the universal exposition in Seville.

In 1998 he was responsible for the public spaces, for the pavilions and the temporary structures for the Expo in Lisbon.

In 1994 he received the “Award for good industrial design” from the Industrie Forum Design Hannover. In 1995 and in 2001 he was awarded the “Compasso d’Oro”.

Born in Hong Kong in 1954, Chi Wing Lo studied architecture at the University of Toronto and Harvard University. Subsequently, he taught at Syracuse University N.Y. and later was a member at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart in 1991. Presently, he has a practice with Panagiota Davladi based in Athens.
Many of their architectural and design works have been awarded, exhibited, and published internationally.

From the imaginary objects in To Kardizu 1992 to objects of Iro and furnitures designed for Giorgetti S.p.A. in Milan since 1994, Chi Wing Lo gathers much of his inspiration for the resistance to time.

Striving for a synthesis of past and present, familiar and enigmatic, real and imaginary, he sees this ambivalent exactitude could help a work to cut through the drifting currents of time.

This optimism permeates all works he and Davladi have proposed for Athens: the New Acropolis Museum 1990, the Library of Athens 1994, the Five Fountain Pillars for Piraios 1997, the Unification of Syntagma Square 1998; and most recently, an ossuary in rural Arcadia and a towerhouse in urban Athens.

In the course of a day our hand touches and moves a handle from 10 to 30 times. That is more than a little.

The hand is one of the most delicate and complex parts of the human body. Therefore, it is not surprising that I am keen on designing an object, where form, substance, and function must correspond perfectly to the shape of the hand by facilitating its movement, without harming it.

A doorhandle only needs to be itself, with good proportions and a straightforward character.

We started from a quite heavy square section and then gradually removed more and more material until we reached a good balance between a thin line, beautiful to the eye, and a core with some substance, comfortable to the grip.

Since 1966, I've responded to those who call me Fabio Novembre.

Since 1992, I've responded to those who call me "architect".

I cut out spaces in the vacuum by blowing air bubbles, and I make gifts of sharpend pins so as to ensure I never put on airs.

My lungs are imbued with the scent of places that I've breathed, and when I hyperventilate it's only so I can remain in apnea for awhile.

As though i were pollen, I let myself go with the wind, convinced I'm able to seduce everything that surrounds me.

I want to breathe till I choke.

I want to love till I die.

In 1993, I went to Magdeburg to give a lecture.
Although the cathedral had been closed to the public for many years, it had survived as one of the most outstanding medieval buildings in Germany. The interior is a magnificent space, entered through a door on one of the long sides of the building. I was intrigued by the handle to this door, which was cast in metal in the form of a stylized bird.

It was not only good to look at.

More important was the way it sat in the hand...
When we accepted the challenge to design a range of door handles I was reminded of my experience in Magdeburg...

The handle of a door could be linked to architecture in miniature - it has to work well, but it must look good. In another sense, it is an important part of the furniture in a building - literally one of the few points of physical contact.

Another source of inspiration was the world of pocket-knives.
The blades with their mechanism are really like the middle of a sandwich, and they can be packaged in between moulded grips of a variety of materials.

The choice is extensive and determines the appearance and quality of the end product. Our project uses the same principle. The blade of the handle is a flat plate.

The sides can be made in metal, timber or black rubber.
The process sounds like a step-by-step progression, but the reality is closer to a game of snakes and ladders.

Raised in Toronto, Canada, Frank O. Gehry moved with his family to
Los Angeles in 1947. Mr. Gehry received his Bachelor of Architecture degree
from the University of Southern California in 1954, and he studied City
Planning at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

In subsequent years, Mr. Gehry has built an architectural career that has
spanned four decades and produced public and private buildings in America,
Europe and Asia. In an article published in The New York Times
in November, 1989, noted architecture critic Paul Goldberger wrote that
Mr. Gehry’s “buildings are powerful essays in primal geometric form
and... materials, and from an aesthetic standpoint they are among the most
profound and brilliant works of architecture of our time.”

His work has earned Mr. Gehry several of the most significant awards
in the architectural field, including the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize
in Architecture, the Pritzker Prize, the Wolf Prize in Art (Architecture),
the Praemium Imperiale Award, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Award,
the National Medal of Arts, the Friedrich Kiesler Prize,
the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal
and the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal.
Recent and current projects include:

the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California;

the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Bilbao, Spain;

the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College in
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York;

the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois

and the the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University
of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

In this case, I worked the same way as I always do. I thought about the problem and I started sketching to work through some of the issues. Based on the sketches we made a series of models in wood so that we could test our ideas. The models were really important, we were able to touch and feel the door handles, we were able to refine our initial ideas. Using the models we made sure that the door handles worked properly, we made sure that they looked good, we made sure that they felt good in the hand when grasped and turned.


Frank Gehry

Graduated in architecture in Milan.

Besides architecture, she is active in Interior and Industrial design, as well as stage sets and theatrical scenography.

She is famous for her work in the restructuring and refitting of the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée d’Art Moderne in the Centre Pompidou in Paris as well as in the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, with exhibitions ranging from Futurism in 1986 to Picasso in 1998. Other important works are the National Museum of Catalan Art in Barcellona, the new entrance to S. Maria Novella Station in Florence, the Palazzo Italia for EXPO ‘92 in Seville, the Government Palace of San Marino, the new Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the “Oberdan space” in Milan, the restructuring of the Reggia di Venaria Reale in Turin.

Amongst many prizes, she has been awarded the title of "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur" in France and the "Premium Imperiale" for Architecture in Japan.

Gregotti Associati is a highly qualified company handling projects in architectural and urban development, in industrial design and in graphics. The partners of Gregotti Associati who co-operated in developing the projects were Augusto Cagnardi, Pierluigi Cerri and Vittorio Gregotti.

Their activity ranges over a very wide field thanks to the different partners’ contributions and to the specialization of their co-operators. Their work is expressed through architectural projects on a large scale and in general and detailed urban plans commissioned especially by public administrations as well as through reconstruction, interior projects, fittings and graphic planning, in coordinated images and designs commissioned by private individuals and by industrial companies.

Anyone who goes inside a building, either to live or to visit it, is influenced by the shapes, the materials and the colours.

This happens also for door handles and window pulls.

A handle must operate smoothly, must have a pleasing appearance and especially must have tactile qualities when it is touched.

Each handle must radiate sensuality by sight and by touch.

Something that fascinates me is the essential form of the handle in wrought iron.

A sculptural shape from the spindle to the lever, emerges from a piece of metal, through a simple handicraft process.

This corresponds to my morphologic thought in designing.

The handle develops morphologically from a round rosette, gradually becoming a rectangle that curves upwards and turns to the outside towards the round section of the handle.

A complete shape that expresses its function unequivocally and offers a good grip to the hand.

A responsible approach to designing high quality inhabitable space is the underlying philosophy of Jan Kleihues.

As a result, the buildings and designs by Kleihues + Kleihues distinguish themselves through a timeless modern design, that respects the context of the location; the buildings are functional and enduring - characteristics that Kleihues + Kleihues understand to be the basic requirements for an economical and ecological approach towards working with existing resources.

This originates a strong emphasis on detailing, a careful selection of materials and an insisting on advanced craftsmanship and quality of execution.

That’s what I call a basic, elementary object, the zero degree of design.

A minimal solution to give personality to a door, to a window.

Its elementary shapes have a natural logic to my architectural approach.

I am interested in architecture which offers a total vision, where nothing jars.

Everything must be considered as anything which you place in a space has an impact – even something as apparently insignificant as a light switch.

Design for me is about a process of refining and reducing, to reach the point of perfect clarity where form and function collide.

I designed this door handle so that it equally belongs to the door and the human hand.

An object which you are drawn to hold in your hand even if there were no need to open a door or close a window.

Graduated in architecture in Milan.

He has taught and held conferences in numerous international universities and cultural seats.

Amongst the projects he carried out there have been those for Olivetti, Cassina, Vitra, Erco, Rosenthal and Yamaha. He has been honoured with various architectural commissions in Italy and abroad.

Twenty-five of his works are housed in the Permanent Design Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He is a former director of Domus magazine.

We were in Jamaica, the water... on one side the ocean; on the other side, the clear blue lagoon.

Loved by the reggae people. A fount of everlasting youth...

The horizon rises up to the Blue Mountains... emotions, images, sensations...these are alive in our projects: from the largest to the smallest. The object is impossible !

Unimaginable.

The town is simple, so much more difficult the spoon .
It is this difference that makes the object interesting.
The object is changeable, far from the gravity of architecture.
The logic and the procedure differ.

Models, casts, trials are the setting in which the simplicity, the resistance, the functionality of our project live together.

An instrument to be used and one which liberates without many concessions.

Anti-design, discretely alive in an eternal present.

The fear of virtuousness - increasingly sophisticated lines -more and more “design” ideas - the market seeks the new - designing a handle is a little like designing a chair.

An exercise, that of the handle, beginning with a clear idea of the manual routine, an idea of how the hand touches, an idea of how the five fingers are made, the corresponding bone structure, a precise idea between the order of things and casual motives.

Are the bones of our fingers prepared, after many exercises, with computer mouse, keys, digital electronic techniques, to replace the old way of opening and closing doors?......

As an architect, I find myself interested in the artifacts of daily life and how they can be related to architecture.

Because I see architecture and design as part of the same aesthetic continuum, I think it’s unnecessary to distinguish between making a space, a building, or a piece of hardware, aside from their more obvious differences of program and scale. What is important in all of this work is that there is a consciousness of the domestic that informs and enriches design at all scales.

The challenge of good design is addressing and working out all of its many concerns simultaneously, from function to appearance to fabrication.
The way in which a product is manufactured, how it works and what it looks like are fundamentally tied together.

When I begin to design, I first make sure that all the pragmatic issues of the project are met and then, I work from there.

Architectural diploma in 1978, Odile Decq also has a diploma from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris on Urbanism and Planning in 1979.

Architectural diploma in 1985, Benoît Cornette previously completed medical school in 1978 (d. 1998)

After several architectural interior projects, urban studies and some architectural realizations in the west of France including several national competitions, they achieved in 1990 two buildings for the “Banque Populaire de l’Ouest” in Rennes of which they won the commission after a national competition held in 1988.

Afterwards, they’ve completed 3 collective housing projects in Paris, the viaduct of Highway A14 in Nanterre, France along with the construction of the Highway Control Center suspended underneath the viaduct, 2 buildings for Nantes University, the Renovation of Research Centre for Saint Gobain and furnitures for the Conference Hall in the headquarter of UNESCO in Paris.

Realizing numerous exhibits (of which half on the international scene), conferences and symposiums, they’ve also participated in several international competitions.
Represented in Venice Biennale, September 1996, as well as being commissioned to provide the exhibit design for the French Pavillion, they received a Gold Lion Award.

Currently, they are in the process of working on a shop for a fashion designer in Paris, the conversion of the Vetenary School in Bruxelles with a hotel, restaurants, cafes, galleries, commercial and exhibition centre, an office building in Dunkerque, the extension of a dietetic clinic in the north of Paris and the renovation and extension of the “Galleria Municipale d’arte moderna e contemporanea di Roma.”

A door handle.

Sometimes, one caresses it gently in order to enter without noise, to avoid waking the baby.

Sometimes, one grasps it with an imperious gesture to take possession of the room.
One retracts it with the same period of waiting and waits to hear the click of confirmation: closed!

Or one slams it with violence.

There is no gesture that is repeated with greater intention and there is no object of our daily life which requires more participation; or one on which our mood is so much projected.

A door handle opens up on what is going to occur and it closes on that which has already happened.
It may be rich or poor, simple or elaborate, thick or thin, baroque or geometric, hot or cold.

Certainly it must be familiar.

Renowned on the international scene as a clever creator of spectacular spaces, he has realised numerous fascinating interiors in the most exclusive residences of Rome, New York, Paris and Milan, which have influenced many decorators all over the world.

Extending the language of form that has defined Richard Meier’s architecture, the RM Novantotto series for Fusital fuses elemental curves, rectangles and squares into hardware designed to both complement and enhance a variety of environments.

Finished in chrome and brass, the overall effect of each piece is one of pristine balance, as in the door handle, which fuses a dramatically extended lever to a simple cylinder, producing an almost illusionistic effect in reflective surfaces.

The visual interaction of circle and rectangle mediates between the form of the hardware and the door itself, activating the whole in subtle ways.
Taken individually or as a collection, the hardware embodies assertive design and welcoming function.

The RM Novantotto series includes door handle, window handles, door knob, key and pull handle.

“Before the door handle was put in production it was cast.

Although the origin and geometry of its shape comes from a folded flat piece, the handle enjoys the play between the volume that is required for a comfortable grip and the lines of the folded plate, and a game of two tones (i.e. we can see the external polished side contrasted with the matt finish inside).

There is also a dimple in the pivoting point which provides a natural thumb grip.
In terms of material, surface treatment and overall form, the design of the handle is clearly related to other pieces I was designing at that time.”

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP was founded as a practice of architects and engineers organized to reflect the fundamental relationship between these two disciplines in building design. from the beginning, the firm has brought together designers and managers as colleagues, focusing their attention on projects that would benefit from their interaction.

This integrated and collaborative approach, coupled with the firm's sophistication in building technology applications, its commitment to design quality, has resulted in a portfolio that features some of the most important architectural accomplishments of the 20th and 21st centuries.

from the master planning and design of entire regions, cities and neighborhoods, such as Canary Wharf in London and Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island Cultural District, to the design of important landmarks like New York's lever house, Banque Lambert in Brussels, Ben Gurion international airport in israel, and 7 World Trade Center in new york, to interiors projects, like the U.S. census bureau head quarters outside of washington d.c. and the new york stock exchange trading floor, to the design of objects, furnishings and products like a line of environmentally friendly carpeting for Milliken, and everything in between, SOM has consistently distinguished itself for its ability to deliver design solutions that are purposeful, innovative, iconic and meaningful.

Our handles for Fusital are the handles we want for the interiors we design; handles that in their essential simplicity make a clear and strong statement in door design.

They respect the ergonomy but, at the same time, they bring to the design of an interior, a “design” element that is immediately recognisable. They are an important complement of decoration in the tradition of Italian design to “project” each element of the domestic landscape, with that attention to detail, even to the smallest, which is unique to our country.

The offer of handles on the market is, today, extremely wide and varied and it goes from very organic forms to every possible decorative style.

Our proposal goes in the direction of accentuating to the utmost the essentials of design and supplying to architects and interior designers a product with strong characteristic features, which is, substantially, unique in its kind.

Of course, such a basic design requires materials and execution with extreme, almost maniacal, care as well as attention to each small detail and aspect of the production process and finish, but this is a common characteristic of all the products of Fusital.

The experience gained by my equipe, Taller Design, which has matured during thirty years of working on major international projects in town and residential planning, has led us to a reflection upon the treatment of interior space with the object of finding a coherent and harmonious relationship between interior and exterior architecture.
Throughout these projects we have sought for a language which would accord with and be a true reflection of the work of Taller, a language capable of representing the passage from architecture to object without it consequently just being its simple reduction.

The creation of each object is for us an opportunity to approach in the most allusive way the question of form and of its innermost meaning without causing a break with the vocabulary of the work built up.

It is for just such a reason that, under the functional appearance, the design of this handle is directly inspired by the syntax and the techniques used in the elaboration of our architecture.

The design of this handle lies particularly in the joint between the pin element and the handle itself, a joint which is inspired by the structural joining of metallic profiles, with the object of harmonizing all of the component elements.

It is a simple and rigorous joining which confers the robustness necessary to this handle, an object submitted to such frequent use. To build means also to dominate the coherence of a whole, from the general structure of a building to the smallest detail.

He graduated in Milan in 1945.

In his studio he carries out his activity of architecture, urban and industrial design.
Academician in San Luca, and a Honorary visiting Professor of the Royal College of Art, London.

He has been awarded many prizes, amongst them three “Compassi d'oro” and the “Gold Medal S.I.A.D.” 1985 (Society of Industrial Artists and Designers).
Most of the major international Museums of Art show samples of his work.

Yoshimi Kono is president of Kono Designs, a New York City based design firm.

He was previously a partner at Vignelli Associates working as a product, graphic and interior designer.

Mr. Kono was born in Japan and received a degree in architecture at Tama Art University in Tokyo in 1981.

He joined Shigeru Uchida at Studio 80 in Tokyo as a designer and in 1984 he was promoted chief designer.

He has worked on a wide range of projects including showrooms for Artemide and Poltrona Frau; product, packaging and retail design; set design for Radio Televisione Italiana; Sasaki Crystal tableware; and design in the field of graphic and publications.

Examples of Mr. Kono’s work have appeared in numerous international publications, and his honors include awards from the Japan Display and Sign Design Associations.

Zaha Hadid is an architect who consistently pushes the boundaries of architecture and urban design. Her work experiments with new spatial concepts intensifying existing urban landscapes in the pursuit of a visionary aesthetic that encompasses all fields of design, ranging from urban scale through to products, interiors and furniture.

Best known for her seminal built works (Vitra Fire Station, Land Formation-One, Bergisel Ski-Jump, Strasbourg Tram Station, the Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, the Hotel Puerta America (interior) in Madrid, the Ordrupgaard Museum Extension in Copenhagen, and the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, her central concerns involve a simultaneous engagement in practice, teaching and research.