Superga Shops Displays

"When I design a place in which a product is presented, I think of the soul of that product and then I think of myself. I must find what it is in my work that coincides with the history and spirit that spawned Superga. To borrow from Rifkin, 'we are moving toward a future in which products increase but consumers decrease', we'll spend our money and our time in shops that give meaning to our existence. Thus, a project for a place must now be viewed as a dichotomy, with ancient rationalism and costs on the one hand and the search for meaning on the other. Rubber is an excellent stimulus to arrive at a good expression of the meaning of evolution, considering the idea of change as a positive and sustaining element.

Rubber is soft and lends itself to curves, expressing naturalness. The Superga trademark is also curved into ad 'S' shape that goes well with the expressive idea of change and mutation.

I relay the company's solidity through a noble material like glass that, covered with liquid rubber, allows me to exploit transparency and opaqueness to create display windows and backlit areas using just a few elements.

The perimeter of the shop is covered with these modules made of luminous glass that radiate light on the product. These modules are like illuminated signboards that can change colour or image to best recount what they display, but also to attract and seduce, because throughout the project there is also the simultaneous presence of rational and emotional aspects. Mobile tracks hold swivelling shoe racks so that the product can be seen in the round, so people can touch and understand it.

The entire display area is thus a lightweight and simple system of communications, equipped for change, and it also includes a communications module, a mini-videowall connected online to the Superga website. The project envisages clothing display systems, waiting areas, conversation corners, eating areas, bright lighting, lightweight counters and benches covered in the same rubber used for the shoes.

It is a container that is not neutral but predisposed to change, a fluid place for warm and non-aggressive communication in which the aesthetic value and artistic intervention have an importance that parallels the development of the project idea that is sold in this space. In my opinion, the ability to evolve brings the word 'shop' to mind less and less and focuses increasingly on the term 'media gallery' where people go to fill up not only on a high-quality product but also on the culture that generated it".