We are at Via Turati 2, in the center of Milan, near lively Piazza Cavour, the colorful Brera district and luxurious Via Monte Napoleone. Here, in the busy city, there is now a window on another world, a glimpse of a natural landscape that offers a relaxing break, a regenerating atmosphere as soon as one enters the store. The new Baxter Outdoor Gallery is the first Baxter space entirely for its outdoor furniture collection. The disorienting effect is generated by the unexpected garden created inside, but also by the exotic, natural atmosphere formed by a combination of furnishings and set design.
Full-height windows bring natural light to the airy spaces with high ceilings. Walls with soft forms define the architecture and set a rhythmical pace for the displays, featuring strong chromatic shifts. Finishes and materials normally deployed in outdoor contexts are also applied here: from the sisal floor mats, like those of Mauritius, to the raw lime of the walls, like the external finish used on dwellings in southern Italy.
Organized on two levels, the Baxter Outdoor Gallery envisions open-air terraces and green panoramas, where the collections are the protagonists. Starting with Himba and Nairobi, designed by Roberto Lazzeroni like sculptures with organic profiles in iroko wood. Or Narciso and Dharma by Studiopepe – a line of soft informal seating, and an eclectic collection of sculptures, respectively – mixed in a harmonious way, bearing witness to a long process of research on materials and finishes.
To round out the experience, Nigerian vases, Ethiopian amphorae, a collection of African masks and Chinese antiques, and other items from around the world. Along with large compositions of plants to trigger the atmosphere of a secret garden.
“Everything – the company explains – has been gauged to make the observers forget they are in the center of Milan, imagining an outdoor space on an island in the Mediterranean.”
Photo © Fabrizio Cicconi
