Stumbled Upon by Alessandro Isola

Inventive, creative, poetic, boundaryless, stimulating, crafted, distinctive, personal and bespoke are all words that describe Alessandro Isola’s design endeavour. Scale puts the focus on a bespoke design piece called the Stumble Upon.

Alessandro’s work is known to avoid the straightforward, and his love of illusion and devotion to craft is well-known. What he assures all who commission him, is that the outcome will be uniquely innovative, appropriately useful, and beyond convention.

Stumble Upon acts as a functional table area, accented with a contrasting material. The fold means it can be configured into multi-functional surfaces that suit the moment. This additional surface is now functional but also gives flexibility and simply curves over to add more contact with the texture of the floor space.

Stumble Upon consists of a single sheet that provides two surfaces at differing levels. For comfort and function the material choice of these two surfaces creates a sharp contrast between the top part of the rug and the underlay. The top gives the sense it has been hand-made with beautiful imperfections and the underlaying material is a perfectly smooth surface. Usually the back of a rugis not attractive. In this case, it is in fact the back that becomes the most attractive part of the table when converted as the table top. In this case the folding reveals a back that is probably even more stunning then the front, a polished reflective surface that is curved creates deformed reflections providing an unexpected effect.

Alessandro was not always an architect. He was a professional dancer, then a stage actor and then worked as a policeman. He then became an architect. He believes that these apparently diverse, previous experiences, contribute to all that he creates.

He founded his new studio Alessandro Isola Ltd and with his creatively like-minded team he works internationally, with projects in England, Italy and Russia. Alessandro’s work spans small and large projects, focussing on bespoke interior architectural solutions, inclusive of developing furniture systems and product pieces.

For much of his production, Alessandro returns to his native Italy to source true independent craftsmen, that over generations have perfected a particular craft technique.

Pictures Courtesy Alessandro Isola Studio

For more interesting topics related to Architecture please visit Scale Magazine Architecture category.