Light must reflect the vibrant beauty of silent architecture, as architecture must magnify the sacrality of light.
Thomas Allocca
Oaklight
Wall Lamp | 400 $
Oaklight is a wall lamp characterized by wooden elements made of prime quality American white oak (Quercus alba) and natural fabric.
Structural and decorative elements of emblematic European medieval architecture are reinterpreted and integrated to the lamp, redesigned in Golden Ratio.
The lamp is produced in Italy, by order. The electrical system is certified. The size and the lighting system are customizable. Each lamp is signed and numbered.
Table Norway
Dining Table | 4000 $/sqm
Table Norway is very minimalist, but based on a complex sequential dry-joint system, self-standing, without any support of metal plates and screws. Made of prime quality of American hardwoods, without any paint, just natural oil spread by hand, this table is the essence of our design vision and mission.
The structural system is inspired to a medieval sequential overlapping and hooking joint system, reported in the Norwegian langhuser and stavkirker. All the elements are in massive timber, building the whole table in sequence (posts>beams>top), and desmantling it in the reverse way.
The table can be customized in size and materials, up to a size of 400 x 400 cm. The top can be customized, in wood, crystal, with tarsia, with Italian ceramic tiles from Faenza or Amalfi, with glass tiles from Murano. Each table is signed and numbered. All the elements are made in Italy.
Pictures: (top and left) Table Norway made of superior American Ash; (right) Table Norway made of Italian Olive and African Wenge (tarsia on the top, reproducing a Celtic triskell as required by the client).
The Luxury of Wood
December 2011, my first meeting with Paolo Portoghesi happens by chance. We are flying back to Italy on the same aircraft, me from New York, he and his wife Giovanna from Frankfurt. We are in the same row of seats, Paolo at the window, Giovanna in the middle, me on the corridor side. I recognize Paolo and soon I introduce myself, honored to fly in their company, meeting in person one of the European masters of organic architecture. We talk about wooden architecture, trees, medieval spirituality and archetypes, and he recalls an interview to me published on his magazine Abitare La Terra six years before. Hours pass like minutes and we stop to talk just because the aircraft is landing to Rome. We meet again months later at their house in Calcata. I bring with me a prototype of a new anti-seismic dry-joint system from a research on the Norwegian grindverk, my interpretation of the structures could have been used by the Icelandic Thing at Thingvellir during the Viking Age. We talk all day long about my prototype and at before to leave, Paolo says "it is strange Thomas, as at my honorable old age, after so many projects and books, I still have regrets... regrets to have underestimated the potentialities of wood, used so few times, compared to the illusion of concrete and steel... architecture needs more wood, and humble silent architects... architecture needs real beauty, while it is too much focused on noisy appearing for dominating the scenes of ego".
