PREVIEW PORRO @ LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL
NEW SHOWROOM PORRO LONDON @ THE COAL OFFICE

05.09.22

Press Day, Friday 16 September, from 9am to 6pm.
17-25 September 2022, Monday-Saturday, from 10am to 7pm. Sunday, from 11am to 5pm.
Special Late Opening, Thursday 22 September, from 7pm to 10.30 pm.

For the London Design Festival, Porro flies to London to celebrate the opening of its new London @ The Coal Office showroom in the King Cross area north of the city, inside the majestic brick building along the bend of the Regent’s Canal where the headquarters of designer Tom Dixon are located. Being one of the world's most appreciated brands for its architectural approach in designing the space and for its ideal of beauty consisting of pure shapes, extremely precise workmanship and research into materials and technologies, Porro has chosen this building as its London base, a structure that underwent a significant refurbishment within the framework of an urban renewal project, just a few steps away from Central Saint Martins, a hotbed of future talents: a showroom and an office where new tailor-made projects can be developed, pushing creativity and craftsmanship to the next level.

“Innovation and the desire to break out of established paths have always been the driving forces of my family’s company, now in its fourth generation and close to 100 years old. We feel the fascination of a such a contemporary and intercultural place, a crossroads where art and creativity can thrive: we believe that by mingling different creative approaches and combining seemingly opposing worlds, linked by design quality as a common thread, we can develop incredible interior designs”, explains Maria Porro, head of marketing and communication of the family business.

“This space has been created to establish a dialogue with architects, interior designers and end customers in London who want to live and work in custom-designed spaces, where the artisan care for details matches the precision, reliability and quality of the industry. Thanks to a revolutionary, state-of-the-art production facility that has eliminated warehouse stocks by working just-in-time with excellent results in terms of panel cutting and veneer quality, customisation ability, waste reduction and sustainability, Porro offers solutions that are every time different, every time unique. This store is another proof of that: in it, the company’s systems, true complex but flexible architectures, design the spaces in a creative way in combination with the product collections, developed by leading designers”.

As the key protagonist of Porro’s settings, brand's icon and symbol of its customisation skills, the Storage wardrobe and dressing room system designed by Piero Lissoni + Porro CRS features the new 25x25mm profile, which allows to place open compartments alongside spaces closed by doors with the utmost freedom: an optical lightness further enhanced by the transparent corner solution.

The black-painted metal frame matches the interiors in black sugi, an extremely sophisticated and captivating finish: matt ink-black surfaces featuring a marked veining pattern draw inspiration from the ancient Japanese technique of Sou Sugi Ban, that used to protect cedar wood by burning it with charcoal. The light embedded in the shelf emphasizes Storage graphic design and follows its lines, transforming it into a stage for garments. Thanks to the wireless lighting system, power is supplied into the structure, hidden from view. With all technical details designed by Porro and fully integrated, the shelves become lighting fixtures where light can be adjusted at 2 different temperatures.

In the reading corner, the Lullaby armchair designed by Nicola Gallizia – featuring sophisticated details such as the black-stained curved solid ash frame and the tight-fitting upholstery in brick-coloured cloth – is placed alongside the Offshore dresser by Piero Lissoni, with moon-white open-pore painted ash exteriors. The drawers, in birch plywood plated with natural maple, are equipped with a double extraction guide for a comfortable and complete opening. Thanks to a special 45° connection between shelf, sides and top – the result of an accurate manufacturing process – Offshore features a volume that is perfectly finished on all sides, thus allowing it to be positioned in the middle of a room.

In the dining room and meeting room, Porro’s ongoing research into materials, manufacturing techniques and shapes that evoke emotions revolves once again around Materic, the table project designed in 2017 by Piero Lissoni with the idea of testing the versatility of matter through basic geometries. Featuring a tapered round top in Paonazzo marble on a truncated cone base in solid natural ash, it is shown in combination with the Romby armchairs by GamFratesi, imbued with an abstract charm. The truncated cone base in solid natural ash, featuring a flared shape with wood slices cut in an exquisite cabinet-making exercise, matches a swivel, soft and compact padded seat, covered in fabric or leather. This project fits perfectly into Porro’s universe, which has always been characterised by minimal lines and great craftsmanship.

The Load-it bookshelving system is a Porro signature item designed by Wolfgang Tolk in 1995 and characterised by protruding shelves that slice through the space. Throughout the years, it has been able to preserve its strong iconic identity, progressively acquiring new functions and design options. Ideal for creating fitted wall and boiserie systems, it gets new functionalities over time thanks to the combination with Modern cabinets: home-working solutions and TV compositions, which further expand the compositional and usage possibilities of this sleek bookcase, further enhancing creativity and fulfilling the functional needs of the living area. Together with the Modern desktop in black-stained ash, the Load-it bookcase with all-steel shelves and tops dresses up the surface, imbuing the room with personality: some modules wear verde cardo, a new soft colour for 2022 that increases brightness in an unexpected contrast. The idea is to enhance a transition space through a bookshelving solution with home-working station and embedded lighting, consisting of magnetic spotlights that can be positioned at will along the electrified profile under the shelf.

It is accompanied by the Brina stool, developed as a tall version of the Neve chair by Piero Lissoni, coming in two heights; its slightly slanted tapered legs, its low curved backrest and its suspended seat in black-stained solid ash epitomize Porro's woodworking ability.

Porro London @ The Coal Office, 
1 Bagley Walk, Kings Cross, 
N1C 4PQ London
T. +44 (0)7951865944
porrolondon@porro.com