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Drawing inspiration from Le Corbusier’s extensive body of work, Diego Grandi created the Day Off installation at Cersaie as a product showcase that would explore the relationship between people and their environment. In particular, Grandi looked to the Cabanon de Vacances – a small cabin Le Corbusier built in France’s Côte d’Azur in 1951, which served as his personal vacation spot.

Grandi’s take re-imagines the concept as two intersecting volumes – one solid, one transparent – that encompass 250 square metres of alternating indoor and outdoor spaces, designed for guests to relax and interact with each other and with the outdoor environment. Included are an outdoor patio with a small swimming pool and a kitchen space offering continuous views of greenery. “The thin, permeable diaphragm of the greenhouse volume expresses the aim of the design,” says Grandi, “which is to create a new interpretation of the personal retreat, with a balance between nature and artifice.”

True to his muse, Grandi turned to Cassina for furnishings designed by Le Corbusier and his associates Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, including the LC7 revolving chair, LC8 stool, LC10-P table and clusters of box-like LC14 tabourets in solid chesnut and oak. Perriand’s Tokyo lounge, a wooden version of the iconic LC4, adds to the sense of being steps away from a Mediterranean beach.

Of course, this being a Cersaie feature, ceramic tiles and bath fixtures took centre stage. Grandi collaborated with a host of Italian brands on the project, fitting the interiors with products that would extend the feeling of a space merging with nature. The floors are finished with Lea Ceramiche’s flagstone-like System L2, which can be used both indoors and outdoors. Most strikingly, both interior and exterior walls are lined with Lea Ceramiche’s ultra-thin Slimtech panels, digitally printed with a tessellated trapezoidal pattern borrowed from the brand’s Mauk collection. Elsewhere, white Brick tiles from Lea Ceramiche’s Kensington collection line the walls in a grid formation.

In two shower spaces, in indoors and one out, the Closer showerhead from Zucchetti offered a steady flow of water. Sister brand Zucchetti.Kos provided the bathroom’s Muse soaker tub, as well as the Minipool and the Pan collection of taps – both designed by Milan firm Ludovica+Roberto Palomba. Grandi chose fixtures from Zucchetti for their rounded lines, which speak to harmony with the environment. “I wanted this retreat to be based on the principles of beauty and simplicity,” Grandi says, “to explore the relationship between man and nature.”

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