Amini Carpets
Now available @demosmobilia
Amini’s craftsmanship and sartorial savoir-faire give new life to the famous TAPIZOO collection signed in 1970 by Gabetti&Isola for residential apartments for Olivetti employees in Ivrea. After more than fifty years, the iconic rugs/arazzo that ironically depict four animals (the leopard, Tapipardo, the dragon, Tapidrago, the bear, Tapiorso and the lion, Tapileo) are put back into production in a brand new version.
Between 1968 and 1971, the firm Gabetti & Isola (Roberto Gabetti, Aimaro Isola, Guido Drocco, Luciano Re) created one of the most important buildings in the contemporary architectural scene, which has now become a Unesco World Heritage Site: the Olivetti West Residential Center in Ivrea (TO).
Designed to house the company’s employees, the building-a hypogeal hemicycle overlooking a forest-was affectionately renamed Talponia by locals because it is almost completely underground. The architecture is reminiscent of the cavea of a theater and allows people to enjoy the spectacle of nature and its inhabitants in the rotation of the seasons. In fact, the architects’ intention was to escape from the dangers of overbuilding to create environmentally sustainable structures that would become part of the surrounding landscape, absorbing it until it disappears.
In addition to designing the building, the firm was also responsible for the housing units and interior furnishings, which, in keeping with the climate of disenchantment and experimentation of those years, are designed as “nomadic” elements to allow residents to customize the spaces according to their own needs and desires. These also include the iconic Tapizoo Collection carpets that, in an ironic and playful spirit, refer to the depiction of fake animal skins lying on the ground like hunting trophies, a reflection on the gratuitous savagery of which man is sometimes guilty.
Almost fifty years after the Paracchi company of Turin last put into production, Amini – on the initiative and design of Lodovico Gabetti and Fabrizio Pellegrino – offers a hand-knotted version of the Tapizoo Collection in full continuity with the original design. Thanks to an important research activity, the company has managed to trace back the details on the workmanship of the period both from a technical point of view and in terms of yarn count and type of wool used, resulting in high-quality works revised in a modern key, without losing the historicity of the artifacts.
Originariamente realizzati con un telaio semi meccanico, i tappeti in pura lana rieditati da Amini sono annodati a mano e presentano un vello cesellato su due livelli. La collezione è caratterizzata da quattro diversi soggetti animali: il leopardo (Tapipardo) di colore arancione su fondo blu; il leone (Tapileo) di colore ocra su fondo giallo; l’orso (Tapiorso) di colore bianco su fondo avorio e il drago (Tapidrago) di colore verde su fondo bianco. Quest’ultimo, a differenza degli altri, è ripartito in quattro parti uguali e componibile a seconda delle diverse esigenze installative: come passatoia per impreziosire un ingresso o un corridoio, oppure la versione tappeto, perfetto protagonista di ogni zona living.
