Mediterraneo

Alessi

Designer: LPWK – Emma Silvestris

The Mediterraneo Collection

Once upon a time, coral could be found all over the Mediterranean and it was exported across the world in exchange for spices and perfumes. Designer Emma Silvestris has skilfully explored the imagery of the sea world to create this basket, which embodies the essential forms and levity of the organisms that populate the ocean. Designed in 2004, this basket paved the way for the Mediterraneo series.

The Designer

Emma Silvestris

Emma Silvestris, born in Salerno in 1962, currently lives and works in Bari. Having obtained a Bachelor of Arts, specialising in foreign literature and history of art, she subsequently worked as a teacher and researcher. Since 1990 she has been working in the field of design, taking part in the activities of the Special Studio in Bari.

LPWK

Laura Polinoro graduated in Drama Art and Music Studies in Bologna. Her first job was in the field of contemporary dance as art director and costume and set designer. Later she undertook research at the Domus Academy in Milan. From 1990 to 1998 she was in charge of the Centro Studi Alessi, where she operated as meta-project designer and art director. Items which entered production in that period are identified with the acronym “CSA”. Since 2004 products overseen by Ms. Polinoro have been identified with the letters “LPWK”.

The company

Founded in 1921 as a “Workshop for the processing of brass and nickel silver sheet metal, with foundry”, Alessi has always stood out for the high quality of its products.

In almost a century of history, the company has gradually evolved to become one of the leading “Factories of Italian design”, capable of applying its expertise and excellence in design management to many different product types.

Open to change and international development, Alessi at the same time has a strong bond with the traditions and cultural background of its area and continues to be synonymous with handcrafted objects produced with the help of machines.

Alessigraphy: the geography of Alessi production

Since the Company's foundation in 1921 the majority of Alessi products have been manufactured through the cold working of metals, a tradition that is kept alive today by the skilled workers at the Crusinallo plant in Omegna.

Over time, Alessi also began to work with many other materials, such as porcelain, glass, wood, and plastic… A specific production method was developed for each one. Even when production takes place outside the Crusinallo plant, Alessi’s guidelines ensure the company’s original production quality standards, continuing to reconcile industrial technological complexity with an artisanal eye for detail.

The objects produced from the different materials are manufactured in various production plants across the world. They remain original Alessi objects in that they are conceived with the same design excellence and produced with the same attention to quality that sets the company’s products apart.