Rivoalto | Small - Natural wood

Rivoalto is a small wall console, an elegant storage accessory made of cherry wood and featuring soft arched niches reminiscent of the unmistakeable marble arches in Venice's symbolic monuments. The largest arch is fronted by a thin metal sheet which functions as a door, featuring the stylised outline of a minute gondola; this serves as a handle, while at the same time being reflected in the watery green mirror-like surface surrounding it, a further homage to the world's most famous city on the water. This attractive container, created to hold and display small souvenirs and other objects and accessories, is also an homage to the renaissance workshops of Rialto and the ancient Venice of the merchants.

The Inspiration
/Rì-vo-al-to/ The island of Rivo Alto and the bridge of the same name. Venice's ancient market with its fishmongers, greengrocer's market and the Fondaco dei Tedeschi which housed the German merchants; its walls, painted in light colours which let frescoes by Titian and Tintoretto show through, so faint as to be almost dreamlike. Rivo Alto is the first official place in the Venetian lagoon where the land-based population transferred to during the 5th century: to all effects the symbol of the famous city's birthplace.

The designer
A highly imaginative mind, capable of creating light-hearted objects which are also able to make those who choose them talk and embrace different and unknown personalities in a single identity. The profession not as a purely stylistic exercise, but as a creative act able to make every object shine under the light of its soul. For a more expressive, more real and human design, in which lightness, simplicity and consistency meld together and suggest a lighter and more sustainable existence.

The Craftsman
The countryside dominates the plains around Verona as far as the eye can see: only some elements interrupt this endless regularity, bringing your feet back to earth: the rows of towering poplars, the village bell towers and the succession of streets which testify to what was once the classic furniture area. Few remain in this craft today, with its inseparable union of traditional knowledge and high-quality manufacturing: one of the exponents is Damiano's joinery, where together with his brothers he carries on the precious tradition begun by his father, keeping it competitive thanks to innovative tools and processes.