“To create a space of wonder. A magical place - both real and dream-like at the same time - consisting of hundreds of coloured or transparent glasses, each with different characteristics”.
This is the clever idea that occurred to brothers Alessandro and Francesco Mendini when they were commissioned to design the creative and commercial outpost in Milan of Seves glassblock, the company that is a world leader in the home glass block sector with its headquarters in Florence but with production and commercial distribution centres spread throughout the world.
For the first of a series of exclusive-brand flagship stores conceived to transmit the innovative scope of the material, capable of reconciling excellent technical and construction properties with aesthetic and decorative possibilities yet to be explored throughout the world, from Barcelona to Shanghai, from Rio de Janeiro to Moscow, the two designers decided to subvert the more traditional formulation of the exhibition showroom, understood as ordered presentation of the product variations present in the catalogue.
Trusting in their imagination and in their well-known inventive capacities, as new pioneers they have tested their abilities in the construction of a full-blown ideal world, organised around glass blocks. A bright, colourful universe, to meet, plan, and - why not? - daydream, amid the glare and reflections caused by floors of light, walls and furnishing elements that are mono-material and poly-chromatic.

From the architectural point of view, the Mendinis’ project choice has been to respect the layout distribution of the pre-existing industrial structure, a large open space with its rhythm marked by the network of steel pillars in six parallel bays, softening the structural presence through the use of the colour lilac that covers the exhibition environment uniformly, giving it visual homogeneity and a fairy-tale aura.
The main entrance, in the centre of the long side, is marked by a sophisticated building staircase consisting of glass blocks that seem cool as ice cubes, with two garden screens alternating transparent areas with single blue inserts, announcing the area dedicated to the top line of the Seves glassblock catalogue: the Italian one, strongly characterised by Design, heir to the Vetroarredo offer and summarised by the Pegasus glass block with wings.
In this sector of the showroom, ten building panels arranged in a fan-shape in two rows present the extensive range of colours (nine pastel shades plus the neutral one), finishings and formats in which the product is available, making Seves the ideal interlocutor for high-level contemporary architecture and design. From the standard pieces to the special modules, such as corner and end pieces; from the neutral version, which makes simplicity its trump card, to the multiple possibilities of colour; finally, to the new metallised finishing, applied to the neutral or coloured versions, which give the reflection a particular silvery note, causing evocative light effects.
Concluding the Pegasus area, drawing the gaze laterally and frontally, are three back-lit polychrome maxi-panels, devoted to the latest Seves glassblock innovation: the glass blocks with strong colours of the Mendini Collection.
Thanks to a special procedure performed manually block by block to maintain the purity of the colour shades, the Pegasus offer of colours is enriched by sixteen new subtle ultra-contemporary shades, selected by Atelier Mendini to brighten contemporary domestic landscapes with new tones and visual sensations, ranging from the bolder and more defined shades to black and white in various degrees of transparency.
Presented in the 19x19x8cm format with smooth glass design and metallised finishing, characteristics that render the shades even more distinct, full and impactful, the pieces of the lively new collection are arranged in a chessboard layout in endless variations, from pure monochrome to kaleidoscopic effect, from abstract geometry to figuration.

Continuing to the left of the entrance we access the area devoted to the Tailor Made service.
Two large fire red home display cases, with strong visual impact, show the “made-to-measure” glass blocks conceived and realised by Seves glassblock for Renzo Piano’s Maison Hermès in Tokyo, for Daniel Tai’s Buddha Lecture Room in Taichung, for the Tiberio’s Baths in Panticosa in the Spanish Pyrenees by the Moneo -Brock Studio and for the University Library of the Jesuits of Deusto in Bilbao by Rafael Moneo.
The five unique pieces used for these projects have entirely innovative characteristics: the first two, realised in collaboration with Genoese master Piano, in fact consist of one with extraordinary dimensions (42.8x42.8x12cm) and a mirroring that gives the glass block an extraordinarily shiny silvery effect; the other, a submultiple of the previous one and conceived to complete the corner of the “all-glass” Hermès building, has the peculiarity of consisting of a curved outer face combined with a flat internal one, this too mirrored.
The glass block that came about from the partnership with Belen Moneo and Jeff Brock, dimensions 30x30cm, is characterised by a trapezoidal form due to the 5-degree inclination of the two parallel faces, while the block conceived together with Rafael Moneo has an outer face consisting of flute patterns in relief evoking the jagged motif of Doric columns furniture.
Finally, the special 33x33x12cm block perfected with architect Daniel Tai has on its outer surface the transparent image of the Buddha on the satined finishing realised on the surface of the block.
The exhibition of the products is accompanied by sketches and drawings for the projects, making it possible to read the complete process of realisation, from the initial conceptual phase to the formal development of the block, up to its installation.
It is also possible to observe the live application of these special pieces in the lateral sectors of the showroom: if on the left side it is the Trapezoidal block, installed to form single semicircular totemic presences, that delimits the Tailor Made exhibition environment, the spacious room with seating for 35 devoted to conferences and presentations is delimited by a semicircular wall of 33x33x12cm satin-finished blocks; on the right hand side of the showroom it is the blocks realised for the Maison Hermès, organised into curvilinear walls highlighting the ductility of the proposal, that close off two functional office environments.
The Doric block by Rafael Moneo, on the other hand, is used to screen off the utility rooms positioned frontally at the entrance, from the stores for the sample ranges of materials, to the kitchen supplier area - created with the Pegasus block in the new sophisticated white colouring introduced by the Mendinis - to the building toilet facilities, which are highly elegant thanks to the use of the more ‘glam’ shades of violet and black.

Finally, the protagonist of the two shop building windows looking onto the street, is the line representing Technology, with its products with high technical performance characteristics (resistance to fire, heat isolation, shatterproofing, and so on), the heir to the Solaris offer.
It was decided to architectural display two of the most representative products of the collection of pavers, designed to respond to various uses, from higher quality urban furniture to interior designer. On one side, the R117 round block, which creates a fun dimpled design on the ground; on the other, the 3190 DS square block with concentric circles, an ideal solution for those spaces where a luminosity is required diffused through the horizontal surfaces, to be combined with a sophisticated aesthetic taste.

If the layout design has been studied ad hoc to show the largest number of products in contexts that are as real as possible, everything that does not have a three-dimensional development is shown nevertheless, in the numerous perimeter display cases that follow in rapid succession throughout the showroom, enabling visitors to visualise close together the endless variations into which every basic element is organised.
Completing the details of the environment are luminaires and furnishing elements selected by Atelier Mendini: from the most famous pieces by the designers themselves to iconic design products, to genuine examples of sculptures. Each individual element is chosen with care, to contribute to the creation of a sensorially stimulating space, capable of communicating with even more force the message of lightness, colour, transparency, flexibility and high performance associated with the Seves glassblock glass block.