A conversation with with Giuseppe Viganò, designer of Smania Nest Collection

Smania is getting ready to present its new collection Smania Nest, a product of its collaboration with Giuseppe Viganò-Studio Viganò, to attendees and participants of the Salone del Mobile Milano. The designer gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the collection and a few peeks at what’s to come.

How did Smania Nest come about?

“Smania already has a very wide range of interior design products for the entire home, including outdoor spaces. This time the company wanted a collection whose defining characteristic was versatility, the ability to be placed with equal ease in a city apartment or a country home, creating continuity between interior and exterior environments. We decided to follow two guidelines: on the one hand, create something with a strong and evocative design inspired by nature and that calls to mind the idea of a burrow, of a luxurious refuge; and on the other hand, work and experiment with materials in order to obtain products that can perfectly enhance and embellish a veranda or winter garden as well.”

What evolutionary process did the collection’s design undergo?

“We began in the living room. From there we came up with our first ideas and our first drafts. Then it was very natural to design the bedroom area in the same style and to include every element necessary for providing a ‘total look’ range of products, from lighting to rugs.”

This collection confirms the importance which Smania gives to selecting high-quality materials and to applying artisan craftsmanship to its products. What are the primary materials used?

“We chose to focus on wood, one of the company’s strengths given its extensive manufacturing experience in the field of cabinetry. Specifically, the collection will be constructed in solid ash wood, rounded and worked in such a way as to give the design a robust and elegant appearance that nevertheless retains its simplicity, thanks to the design of tubular shapes and sleek joints. We also used glass, which will be embellished with an exotic motif, while leather and fabric play a fundamental role as well.”

Smania Nest is a bold collection, both in terms of its spirit and its design, yet it manages to maintain that balance between classic and modern which characterises Smania. How did you obtain this result?

“From the very beginning, we chose to draw upon the company’s know-how and its connection to tradition. Wood, for example, is an element of continuity within Smania’s range of products, a connection to a classic style. Equally classic is the reference to Vienna straw, a style of caning that has gone down in design history and that already inspired two of the company’s past collections: Magnolia and Traditional. In our case, it stimulated us to create something unique and produced a result that we are quite proud of: an all-new leather weave that characterises most of the pieces in the collection. More modern in style, however, is the way in which the materials are paired with one another, the simplicity of the lines, the overwhelming presence of motifs and colours inspired by nature, like brown, eggplant, grey, and dark blue.”