Hand-finished, gray Milano-coloured walls rise from the edges of jet-black granite flooring with a delicate, almost calligraphic gravure running through it.

Bottega Ghianda’s products can be found in their exposition on shelves, racks and vertical stands similar to those of a museum; they are illuminated discretely by small spherical dark-bronze lamps and the light cast by spotlights on the ceiling. Paleblue linen curtains further soften this visual ensemble.

It may feel like an art gallery or even a jewellery store: but wood takes the place of gold and splendour exudes exclusively from objects that bear witness to a mastery of production techniques. Each piece, a unique creation that’s always the result of manual endeavour, is offered — exhibited, caressed, wrapped in a special package, and finally entrusted to the hands of the customer... — with all the meticulousness of a ritual.

Over time the shop will host all of the creations of Bottega Ghianda’s artisanal production: the work of historic designers like Gae Aulenti, Mario Bellini, Cini Boeri, the Magnussons, and propositions from the new designers who enthusiastically accepted Michele De Lucchi’s invitation to contribute to a tradition that’s admired the world over.

Bottega Ghianda is part of the narrow circle of workshops at the forefront of the art of fine-woodworking and cabinetmaking in the world. It was founded two centuries ago and has established itself over the course of generations as an Italian excellence in this form of craftsmanship — and particularly in its most refined tradition, ebanistry. It has cultivated a precise vocation: the mastery of its craftsmen enables exceptional designers to transform their creative vision into reality. It is only the truly peerless skill of each of the fine-woodworking masters that mak es it possible for wood to take the forms conceptualised by leading architects, designers and artists. They have always entrusted their ideas to Bottega Ghianda with the utmost confidence, in the knowledge that only here can they find the hands and knowledge they require.