14 October 2009

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SOGNO D’ARIA – “A dream of air”


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Ermanno Casoli’s dream led to the creation of a Group that has become the world’s leading cooker hood manufacturer.  Milan’s Design in the City event provides an opportunity for a journey down Elica’s memory lane.

The Elica Showroom in Via Pontaccio in Milan’s Brera district features “SOGNO D’ARIA”, an exclusive celebration organised by the Fabriano industrial group on the occasion of the “Milan Design in the City” event, promoted by Design Partners and involving the world’s most prestigious brands.

The guiding idea behind the “SOGNO D’ARIA” project is to use two floors of exhibition space to take the visitor on a journey through Elica’s history, beginning with the original dream of the company’s founder Ermanno Casoli back in 1970.

 “In this briefcase,” he said, proposing the first air extractor to the multinational Philips in their Paris office, “I’ve got the invention of the century!” This product was the forerunner of the cooker hood we know today, which Ermanno Casoli dreamt would become a must for every kitchen, believing as he did – with the philosophy that quality of life was something to be continuously improved – that cleansing the air of odours and vapour was a small luxury that should be available to everybody.

This belief’s transformation into concrete reality can be relived in all its excitement by the visitor to the Elica Showroom exhibition.

Music, colours, iconic objects created by international designers, all add to the atmosphere for this voyage through Elica’s memory, following it from that “dream in a briefcase” of 40 years ago to the present industrial reality as world leader in the production of cooker hoods, a company famous for  its outstanding design and innovation.

Working together with Elica, and playing an important part in recreating an authentic 1970s atmosphere, are several prestigious brands that at that time already defined a life style that’s still with us today: Campari Soda, Kitchen Aid, Smeg, Brionvega, Knoll, Hermann Miller and Danese.

The Design in the City programme will end with a competition where the visitor, voting for their favourite display, has the chance of winning a prize that, amongst other objects, includes an Elica Mini Om cooker hood.