Dada kitchens, when minimalist design meets precious, cutting-edge solutions
An artisanal company that is a symbol of Made in Italy, founded in 1926 near Magenta, Milan, and transformed into an international giant, an icon of high-end kitchens.
It is part of the story of Dada, the brand that has been part of the Molteni Group since 1979, specializing in designer kitchens that have reinvented space and living in the name of minimalism, combining cutting-edge solutions with functional and refined aesthetics. In the beginning the company, which was mostly family-run, was called “Angelo Garavaglia and Sons,” then in 1972 the new brand was created and collaborations with internationally renowned architects and designers such as Angelo Cortesi, Georges Coslin, and Giovanni Offredi, with the most innovative graphic designers including Italo Lupi and Amilcare Ponchielli, and with interior photographers among the best known of the time such as Gabriele Basilico, Aldo Ballo, and Vittoria Mussolini were born at the same time. From this image revolution began to take shape the product that later, with the entry of Molteni&C. would become the icon of design in haute cuisine that we know today, appreciated all over the world.
So many designers have made the history of Dada kitchens through collaborations: Michele De Lucchi, Norman Foster, Ferruccio Laviani, Dante Bonuccelli, Studio Cerri & Associati, Luca Meda, who changed the company’s stylistic signature since the 1980s, creating a futuristic kitchen for those times, Banco. Since 2016 at the creative helm of Dada and Molteni&C. there is Belgian architect and designer Vincent Van Duysen, who thinks furniture and accessories from an architectural perspective that is not limited to form but is expressed in a careful perception of the interior space and its relationship to the external architecture. In this way Van Duysen creates objects of great purity and essentiality that retain a character of concreteness and solid formal foundations.
Banco, Luca Meda’s revolutionary kitchen with essential and functional aesthetics
A suspended kitchen. Something unthinkable before 1994, the year in which from the pencil of Luca Meda, Banco was born, a kitchen that interprets contemporary aesthetics and, even today, is very current. It is basically a large, fully freestanding, equipped table where cooking systems, sink, and other food preparation accessories are concentrated, just as is the case with great chefs’ workstations. The aluminum frame is self-supporting, and supports the suspended storage units, with a matte lacquer interior finish, for an overall effect of elegance, rigor and rationality. The top has minimal thickness and sits in the aluminum frame, hiding its massive core.
Prime, customizable kitchen with throat opening
Aesthetically defined by groove-opening doors, Prime by Dada allows you to interpret the kitchen with creativity thanks to countless compositional variations. The groove runs through the product without interruption and ends on the reported sides, an alternative solution to finished sides to leave maximum freedom for customization. The doors, in essence in the range varieties, lacquered or even glass in bronze and smoked finishes for Flair wall units and columns, are shaped at the top at 45° to make opening easier and more ergonomic. The island element is available with Billiemi stone cladding. Completing the configuration is the new Wing system with aluminum shelves and the snack with titan and pewter aluminum frame and top in the new dark walnut wood, accompanied by the Woody stools by Francesco Meda for Molteni&C.
Space optimization, technology and practicality for Trim and Tivalì, the kitchens designed by Dante Bonuccelli
“The ideal design comes from a new concept, is functional, is attention to detail, has harmonious forms and becomes timeless.” This is the idea behind the thinking of Dante Bonuccelli, an architect and designer, from Buenos Aires who is a consultant to Dada and has signed two revolutionary kitchens, Trim and Tivalì.
The former is an articulated system of modular components for the kitchen environment, which allows for the development of innovative solutions in terms of form, technology and typology. A comprehensive, flexible and versatile program consisting of differentiated functional elements through which each design intervention can be customized by adapting it to specific needs. Operating block, cabinets, wall units, shelves and accessory equipment are reinterpreted to allow maximum modularity and encourage rational organization of living spaces, integrating the kitchen with the living room and the rest of the house. Conceived as true architectural structures that design the contemporary domestic landscape, the many versions of the Trim kitchen can be placed on the wall, in the middle of the room, facing, through, in the different configurations with in-line, corner, double-facing, island or peninsula development.
Tivalì, on the other hand, develops an original typological concept with style and measure, reinterpreting the functional theme of the operating monoblock. The result is a beautifully finished, fully enclosed door storage unit that can be placed on a wall or in the center of the room. Opening it is a surprise: inside, fully functional, is a miniaturized kitchen divided into two areas: cooking and pantry, to be completed with a separate refrigerator column. All made with refined technical details and efficient equipment meticulously designed to optimize space.