The softness of brass.
A door handle featuring a soft and affable shape, in which brass conveys its allure thanks to the best possible form. A handle that is an Archimedean lever, a prehensile device with a vivid visual presence. In a world that obsessively pursues technological innovation, this product belongs to the family of “slowly evolving” objects, whose present form is not so different from its predecessors of 300 years ago.
Physical mimicry.
A smartphone is already obsolete after one year of life; but while we await the advent of immaterial thermal and visual diaphragms, we still use traditional handles without any trouble at all. Many common objects like cups, forks, bottles, nails, and rubber bands – things that might be depicted, together with bees and elephants, in an old primary school textbook – form the beloved backdrop of our everyday life. Their virtue is to be useful, silent tools that do not set out to send messages, to promise global salvation: they are perceived in a more discreet “physiognomic” way.
Their relative silence of form bears the inflection of physical mimicry: they communicate through what was once known as “bearing” or “carriage.” The Drop wants to belong to this world of “silent service,” of useful, humble objects happy to be part of the backdrop of our existence. The Drop is a timid, chubby maidservant, with her hair tied back in a bun and a lace apron, who opens doors with a smile while our brains are busy coping with the thousands of daily snares that lie in wait in the media jungle.
Cino Zucchi
Born in Milan, Cino Zucchi has earned degrees in Architectural Design at M.I.T. and at Politecnico di Milano, where he is currently Chair Professor. He has been a John T. Dunlop Visiting Professor at the GSD of Harvard University. The author of several articles and books on architectural and urban theory, he has taken part in various editions of the Milan Triennale and of the Venice Biennale of Architecture, where he was the curator of the Italian Pavilion in 2014. He has been the chairman of the jury of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture/Mies Award 2015.
Together with his studio CZA, he has designed and completed a number of projects, including the former Junghans factory site in Venice; the former Alfa Romeo-Portello Nord area and the Corte Verde in Milan; the Keski-Pasila master plan in Helsinki; the National Automobile Museum and the Lavazza HQ in Turin; and the Salewa HQ in Bolzano.
