FENIX® and Arpa® at Lake Como with “Returning to Villa Casa Bianca”

On the occasion of the latest Lake Como Design Festival, FENIX® and Arpa® presented the installation “When Nature Blooms” created in collaboration with other brands of Broadview Group - Formica®, Homapal®, Getacore®, Westag Türen® and X-KIN® - within the splendid Villa Casa Bianca, a multi-storey villa overlooking Como promenade, built in the mid-1920s in Art Déco style with additional elements designed by the architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni.

The residence temporarily hosts the set-up "Returning to villa Casa Bianca" signed by the Dutch duo Van Beek & Dings, which shows clients, architects and designers, until  December 2023, the features and creative solutions offered by the materials of the Group's various brands.

In “Returning to Villa Casa Bianca” project, visitors identify with the role of the owners who return, after many years, to the charming villa on Lake Como that has been closed for countless seasons. The signs of aging are deliberately evident, the furnishings are partially covered by sheets, while some objects have remained motionless, as if they had been used recently and reinterpreted by giving them new life.

The result is a time travel between contemplation and memories, between architecture and historical pieces combined with innovative elements and materials. Antique furniture, fabrics and carpets, flamboyant wallpapers from different countries dialogue with contemporary design furnishings. A space-time short circuit that reveals, room after room, different imaginaries and suggestions.

The Dutch studio Van Beek & Dings created an intriguing composition of different settings inside the villa's rooms. The designers used both FENIX® and Arpa® materials and other brands of Broadview Group, including Formica®, Homapal®, Getacore® together with Westag Türen® doors and X-KIN® wall coverings.

FENIX matt and soft-touch surfaces are used for both setting and furnishing elements, showing the material's extreme versatility and some of the most iconic colours of the brand's palette, such as Rosso Jaipur, Nero Ingo and Verde Comodoro. From free-standing bookcases to the large kitchen, but also pedestals, dividing walls and the spectacular sunscreen panel with Moresque-inspired motifs at the top of the staircase designed by the architect Caccia Dominioni.

Arpa enters the set-up with one of its latest innovations: Tuet. Taking up the classic ribbed design of wooden boiserie, this deep surface was chosen to create the bedroom's dividing elements and to cover some furnishing elements.

To complete the project, Formica, Homapal and Getacore materials play a fundamental role in the creation of supports and pedestals for the large plant pots. Sometimes in combination with each other, such as for benches, low tables, shelves, nightstands and small furniture pieces, the materials confirm the inspiring possibilities of integration between the brands and the complementary relation between companies of Broadview.