Giving Lightness to Metal: a Talent Named De Castelli

Working metal as if it were fabric to create upholstery and furnishing objects that are serial, unique, light and rigorous at the same time, with a perfectly recognisable language. The Veneto brand, De Castelli, produces metal finishes and furnishings. Not yet 20 years old, the company was born as a legacy of a much longer metalworking tradition.

 

De Castelli metal for the Archiproducts Design Awards winner

For the fourth consecutive year, De Castelli confirms its partnership with the Archiproducts Design Awards, creating the prize for the ADA-winning brands. The sculptural object inspired by the ‘Möbius strip’ was designed by the Spanish studio MUT Design. New for the 2022 edition is the unprecedented DeMarea Brass sheet metal finish.

“Archiproducts is an important network,” says Albino Celato, “a go-to reference for the world of architecture and design. We are delighted to continue our collaboration with the Archiproducts Design Awards“.

Albino Celato, founder and CEO of the brand, tells us how it all began and how De Castelli metal finishes and furnishings are made.

Founded in 2003 by Albino Celato, the fourth generation of a family of metalworkers, De Castelli is built on design experimentation, pursuing a twofold objective with remarkable coherence and tenacity: to introduce artisan thinking into typically industrial processesand establish a privileged connection with architects. Continuous research conducted to update age-old craft techniques through technology and the introduction of design are the two De Castelli corollaries that underpin an approach that always leads to entirely new results.

“I have the good fortune to be the fourth generation in a family that has always worked in the world of metal,” says Albino Celato. “The story begins at the end of the 19th century when my great-grandfather acquired a piece of land on a canal to power metalworking.

At the beginning of the 1960s, my father introduced copper and brass and began to produce the first pieces of artisan furniture. This production lasted until the 1970s. When I came to the company, I brought the desire to innovate and to become technologically advanced. We continued until the 1990s, but we were still working for third parties. This situation made me uncomfortable because we didn’t have our own brand, and we were giving other companies our know-how“.

The turning point came in 2003 when the ‘De Castelli’ brand was born.

“De Castelli is a fictitious name,” reveals Albino Celato, “that represents the idea of a castle – something traditional because it has lived through time and therefore has historical foundations, but also something important because it dominates the mountain. The ‘de’ in front of it gave it something noble.”

 

Knowledge of the past and technology of the future

Every De Castelli metal object and piece of furniture follows a handcrafted finishing and processing process creating unrepeatable nuances. The result is collections destined for mass production but with a strong craft power, allowing the infinite mutability of steel, corten, brass and copper to emerge.

“We immediately established some fixed values,” says the CEO of De Castelli, “which are still important today. First and foremost, the combination of high technology and high craft production. We try to impart metalworking professionalism and artisanship to the new generations that come along.
We constantly mix knowledge of the past and the technology of the future. For example, the DeNuance finish is obtained by using a 50-year-old technique layered with a new oxidation and paint technology that only exists today.”

 

The tradition of metal meets the creativity of architects

De Castelli’s secret not only lies in production techniques. A critical choice was to bring together the metal tradition with the creativity of architects. In other words, De Castelli wanted to create a direct link with architects, sharing knowledge of the past updated with new technologies.

“We put this know-how at the disposal of architects and designers,” continues Albino Celato, “so that they could interpret our work. This is how De Castelli metal finishes and furniture are created.

We have two technical offices, one that generates the idea of the product we want to present to the market and the other that exclusively follows architecture offices and where architects’ requests are addressed.

It is unthinkable for us to say, ‘it can’t be done’. Our open-mindedness makes us available for experimentation or new research, allowing us to synthesise a process and bring ideas to real projects.”

Steel, corten, copper and brass are moulded to create new forms thanks to the ideas of numerous international designers. First and foremost, Aldo Cibic, with whom De Castelli inaugurated his journey towards a new way of using manufacturing processes. We also work with Michele De Lucchi, Cino Zucchi, and many other professionals. They created wall coverings, furnishing objects, and works of architecture, like the Archimbuto, designed by Cino Zucchi for the Italian Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Biennale.

“It was a surprise and a challenge for me,” says the founder of De Castelli, “I remember when Cino called and said, let’s do this. OK, but it is 10 metres high. How do we do it? I still keep the model he had in the studio as a souvenir. A difficult project, with so many engineering problems, but an incredible experience!”

De Castelli’s multifaceted metalworking ability allows the brand to move from the majesty of the Archimbuto to the much smaller dimensions of the mosaic. With the Tracing Venice project, the Zanellato/Bortotto studio reinterpreted the mosaics of St Mark’s Basilica with six wall tableaus in copper, brass and steel.

This continuous openness to experimentation makes it possible to create totally unexpected furnishings, which manage to give lightness to metal, a material that is by its very nature hard and heavy, turning it almost into silk, like the counter created for the Salone del Mobile 2019 or even the organic shapes of the De Castelli metal furnishings presented for the 2022 edition.

Long experimentation with the now-forgotten hammering and convexing techniques of the late 19th century gave birth to the Biomorphic project this year. The complex metal shapes would not have been possible without the manual intervention of skilled workers.

“For Salone 2022,” explains Celato, “we presented Biomorphic shapes, the result of working with sheet metal not with the usual systems of moulds or turning, but with an ancient technique of high craft, today only in the modelling of vintage machines by skilled craftspeople“.

Meeting with architects and the synergy between craft techniques and high technology are the ingredients that have led to the creation of the latest collections – the bar cabinet, console table and Canneto sideboard by Adriano Design, the Sculpt sideboard by Francesco Forcellini, and the Coste round table by Luca Pevere.

 

The De Castelli showroom in Milan

In April 2021, De Castelli inaugurated a new showroom in Milan designed by architect Cino Zucchi. In Via Visconti di Modrone 20, in the historical and architectural context of ‘old Milan’, the bright rooms of a former art gallery have become a place for meetings, encounters and project development. The space encapsulates the world of De Castelli by narrating its three souls – furnishing collections, surfaces and architectural projects.

“Upon entering, you encounter two imposing apses, precious DeLabré orbital brass elements with double curvature, which communicate our attitude to architecture.

There is a display of De Castelli metal furniture, a material library of finishes, and a workshop, where we work with architects and designers on bespoke projects.

Cino already knew the three souls of the company, and he managed to encapsulate them perfectly in the new showroom!”

 

De Castelli on sustainability

Not only the quality of its products and services but also great attention to sustainability in manufacturing processes and the products themselves.

“De Castelli,” says Albino Celato on the subject, “has the good fortune to make products that have a very long life cycle and is always renewable because it has value even when its life cycle ends. As far as the product is concerned, we aim to facilitate the reuse of material. We design so that the materials of a piece of furniture can be easily broken down and responsibly recycled“.

Scrap metal sheets are collected, sorted and fed into the processing circuit, becoming furnace-ready material for steel mills and foundries. At the same time, a collection system makes it possible to recover the water used for oxidising and washing the sheets.

“Sustainability is a fundamental issue for us. My generation has to take responsibility for not having respected our environment.

We have implemented a series of controlled and sustainable processes at De Castelli regarding what we create as waste and our working environment. A workplace must be healthy, and the risk of accidents almost zero. We must protect our employees, who are an integral part of our family.

Fundamental processes so that my grandchildren can have a better world!”

De Castelli on ARCHIPRODUCTS