TOMI

During the Milano Design Week 2019 FORO Studio presents the project TOMI (Tokyo-Milan) following the Best Performance Award received by the Japanese Aoyama Design Forum - Tokyo at the ADF Milano Salone Design Award.

The ADF Aoyama Design Forum, a Japanese organization founded with the aim of helping to spread the culture of quality design, rewards FORO Studio with the Best Performance Award – at the Design Week 2019 – and sponsors the realization and the exhibition of the project TOMI. The ADF, which has always encouraged through its initiatives the creation of a network of relationships between designers from the international field, between October and December 2018 has announced the ADF Milano Salone Design Award 2019, a contest that invites designers from all over the world to present their own project ideas on the theme of "Portable Space".

The winner of this prestigious award is FORO Studio, an ensemble of five professionals from Milan, who work in the design field, combining their particulars skills to create exclusive and custom-tailored projects. The components of this original ensemble are Claudia Oldani, project manager with technical skills and impulsive creativity; Alessandro Pennesi, product designer and the firm's "theorist"; Giuseppe Ponzo, foundation pillar of the firm and responsible for strategic planning; Fabio Romenici, intuitive and experimental interior and product designer, often oriented towards eco-sustainability design; and Salvatore Ponzo, architect and exhibition designer with multi-purpose skills, are the five components of this extraordinary and original ensemble.

Art Direction, Brand Identity, Interior & Exhibition Design, Product & Graphic Design are only some of the main operational fields that FORO Studio develops and realizes through an innovative and multidisciplinary approach that blends the concepts of materialism, ethics and spirituality. The ensemble combines material and spiritual aspects. Deployed in support of the culture, it researches connections between one's work, art and social life, finding nourishment from the resulting mix and ennobling the final result of the project.

Attention to the use of eco-friendly and cutting-edge materials as well as the application of strategies in constant dialogue with the client aim at creating a unique image giving body and soul to every project, always tending to search for cognitive, emotional and sensorial experiences in order to dialogue with people.

TOMI, their new project that acts as a bridge between Italian and Japanese culture, also tends towards this trend. A mobile space where you can have a packed lunch, as well as an area of relaxation and interaction in the urban area. Actually, the food was chosen as an element of meeting and conviviality. The sense of the ‘schiscetta’ and the bento box, containers for transporting food typical of the culture of Milan and Tokyo, revives in an essential modular system, dismountable and transportable, which generates a place for meeting and hospitality. The project interprets the theme of portability by expanding a transportable object in a physical space. The structure is simple, easy to manufacture and assembly and disassembly, both for the indoor and the outdoor. It combines the Japanese culture with the Italian one in a captivating way, using traditional elements in order to meet the contemporary city's need to create spaces in which to take a break and socialize.

TOMI is inspired by the yatai – stalls introduced during the Edo period to sell street food like ramen and sushi – and revisits them with a structure composed of tubes Innocenti, a historical product of the Milanese manufacture of the Lambrate district. However, many other references are linked to the two cultures: a red and suspended lacquered decorative sphere becomes a tribute to the Japanese flag, while a reinterpretation of the Noren, the traditional fabric dividers used by shops and restaurants, protect from the sun. The large table in the centre of the space, on the other hand, belongs to the Italian culture of the banquet, in which, in front of a nice plate of pasta, you can talk about anything.

The structure, as big as a car’s spot in a parking lot, can accommodate approximately 10 people. Entirely modular, this installation is composed of thirty-eight Innocenti tubes held together by ninety-two mechanical joints. Inside the metal frame, six quadrangular modules – made of lacquered MDF with a dense red tone – are combined together to form a seat that runs along the perimeter of the structure. The black table placed in the centre, also made of lacquered MDF, is the space around which convivial interactions can be triggered. During the day, the Noren curtains provide protection from sun, dust and rain. The Solar panels can be a source of energy for the lights at night. Every part of TOMI can be easily assembled and disassembled through the metal joints. Also, the structure is divided into 6 pieces and they can be easily stored.