La Dolce Vita
Scavolini celebrates its 10th year in the United States.
At the end of World War II, brothers Valter and Elvino Scavolini received a small loan from the Italian government to start a design company in their hometown of Pesaro, and it was only natural to focus on the spiritual lifeline of Italian culture: la cucina. Since those early days, Scavolini has become the godfather of modern kitchen manufacturing. Ten years ago, when they decided to expand to the United States, they found an audience hungry for modern design.
“For the way we live in Italy, cooking is key in our lives and eating is a sacred ritual,” says Daniele Busca, the New York City Showroom Manager and Creative Director. “The kitchen is really the heart of the house. The tradition is to have the table in the kitchen and set it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is a sanctuary where the family gets together to eat, drink, fight. We live everyday life in the kitchen.”
Quickly earning a stellar reputation for reliable, functional and sleek kitchen cabinetry, the modest business blossomed into one of Italy’s largest kitchen manufacturers, with an eye toward innovation and design, a mind for expansion, and a heart filled with nostalgia.
Scavolini’s showroom is a portfolio of the brand’s sleek, contemporary, and customizable designs.
“They were really ahead of their time, not only with production, but how they keep the impact as low as possible on the environment,” says Busca. “This started more than 20 years ago, before anyone was thinking this way.”
Entering the American market was a natural next step to cement Scavolini’s burgeoning international presence, says Busca, and while they were met with immediate success, they also realized that “geography has a big impact on the way we live” and to master the American kitchen they needed to adapt to the American culture.
“The company understood that to be successful in the US, they needed to develop more customizations,” says Busca. “And right now, we have an entire department dedicated to customizing our products.”
Left: BoxLife is a collaboration with Rainlight Studio, and fits the way we live today.
Right: A collaboration with Diesel Open Workshop has a strong, industrial vibe, perfect for urban settings.
And they were right: Scavolini’s modular components in a wide range of styles were an instant hit for American consumers looking for options. “Americans like the one stop shop. They were asking, why don’t we have bathrooms, or they were saying ‘Oh, I like this style, can I do this for the closet?’” explains Busca. And from there, the bathroom line was born, with the American market in mind. The closet collection followed a few years later.
“We launched the first collection called Fluida, and it is meant to be customized, so you can cover any need in any home,” says Busca. “It can be designed according to the space and customized the way you like it—a flexible, fluid system, which is why we called it Fluida.”
For consumers that are tight on space or minimalists at heart, Scavolini’s BoxLife line in collaboration with Rainlight, launched in 2018, was a dream come true. This customizable storage collection is a system of containers that can conceal a kitchen, bed, or office behind modular panels.
“The home is the new sanctuary.” —Daniele Busca
The Walk-in Wardrobe, part of the Fluida closet system, is a space-saving ally, allowing for the customization of any sized space.
“Now with the idea of working from home, there’s a lot of demand for having an office space in the house, and a great thing about BoxLife is that when you’re done, you close the doors and you don’t see anything,” says Busca.
And now with the home performing many functions, having an office that can be out
of sight during the evening is within reach, because “no matter what the size of the home is, it can fit the space, it’s perfect for what we need in these times.” Busca says.
“The home is the new sanctuary. It’s always been like that, but now there is a new, deeper meaning to it.”
MIA by Carlo Cracco is a domestic interpretation of a professional kitchen, and includes features such as an exclusive recessed handle design, a range of stylish finishes, a stunning wall panelling system, and the modularity to amplify the capacity of base and wall units.