LATOxLATO, a design workshop founded by an Italian design duo Virginia Valentini and Francesco Breganze de Capnist, delivers a range of unconventional design products endowed with Italian artistic and architectural heritage. During Milan Design Week 2024, the Italian brand conveyed its design ideologies via collaborative products with international brands such as Pimar and Black Tie at Salone Del Mobile. These collaborations showcased a collection of stylised Matt selection of bathroom accessories and another series of furniture designs celebrating Vienna Straw. 

Material Equilibrium: LATOxLATO X Pimar

A symphony of essential forms and noble materials is formed in the collaborative debut of the multidisciplinary duo and the Lecce-based company. The Italian architect duo renewed its presence at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024 in collaboration with Pimar. Coherent and unmistakable, their stylistic approach is expressed in the Maat collection, named after the Egyptian goddess of balance and harmony, in an interplay of architectural volumes re-edited into refined design objects. The collection's protagonists are matter and balance, in an open dialogue between essential forms, Lecce stone and metal: a clear homage to Apulian Baroque architecture.

The freestanding basin, carved from stone, combines two overlapping, offset cylindrical caps that balance each other in an elegant embrace. A copper bowl lines the inside of the basin and adds a contemporary touch to the artefact. In addition to the towel rail and storage rack, defined by minimalism and formal purity, the modular boiserie completes the product family by offering a metaphysical vocabulary, so familiar to the LATOxLATO duo, which plays with shadows as in a De Chirico painting to multiply the decorative effect. Geometric shapes chase each other on overlapping layers of material, with a seemingly random repetitiveness and an expressively dynamic texture.

Architectural Lightness: LATOxLATO X Black Tie

LATOxLATO also partook in the bustling design festival with Black Tie. The multidisciplinary duo, with its original architectural language, formulates an unprecedented celebration of Vienna straw. The freestanding bookcase Itoku and the dinner chair Kumiko take shape from the research around this timeless material. Two pieces of furniture design transversal to residential and contract, two microarchitectures designed to enhance the lightness of Vienna straw, bring a refined and almost metaphysical atmosphere to any type of space, in perfect harmony with LATOxLATO’s style.

The Itoku bookcase was born from a long reflection on the ancient oriental tradition of using room dividers. The reference to this movable element, which has always been employed to provide privacy and outline evocative three-dimensional backdrops, is enriched with a new function of storage. The essential and rounded design plays with the openable and semi-transparent Vienna straw elements, with the rigorous wooden structure and brass details. Precious material combinations for a versatile and freely interpretable bookcase to be set in the richest and most sophisticated interiors or contemporary spaces.

The lightness of Vienna straw meets the solidity of solid wood in the Kumiko armchair. The upholstered seat and wraparound frame are designed to provide maximum comfort during a dinner with friends or a working lunch with colleagues. Fine fabrics, rattan inserts, and brass details transform Kumiko into an elegant little throne. A perfect armchair for adding a sophisticated touch to the dining room and for the upscale hotel and restaurant industry.