Once again this year Ceccotti Collezioni could not miss the 10th edition of Downtown Design, the Middle East’s baseline fair dedicated to high-quality contemporary design. The event took place from November 6 to 9, 2024 at d3 Waterfront Terrace in the Dubai Design District. This fair was the perfect opportunity for Ceccotti Collezioni and Poltrona Frau, once again together, to let the public discover their commitment to excellence in furniture design and corporate sustainability, at a time when design in the Middle East is booming.
Precisely for this reason, every single step of the production process has been redefined with an ethical and environmentally friendly approach, in an effort to minimize waste and environmental impact: from energy sources to a purpose-built heating system powered by manufacturing waste, through the election of suppliers and the optimization of entire production processes.
At our pavilion, visitors were able to attend a workshop on shellac finishing, giving them a more engaging and in-depth experience of this special craft technique.
Shellac finishing is precisely an ancient wood finishing technique able to give luster to the treated surface, with intense color and a brilliant effect. It consists of applying many thin layers of shellac (it is a natural resin secreted by female “lac” beetle and it can be found on trees in the forest of India and Thailand, it comes in dry flakes) dissolved in alcohol using a pad. The process is long and very repetitive: the finishing result is achieved through a specific combination of several rubbing movements (usually circles and eights) that go on for a considerable time, accumulating layers of polish and then removing any remaining streaks in the wood. This is a very complex and time-consuming technique so that it fell into disuse around 1930 in favor of cheaper and faster techniques. However, there are carpenters and furniture makers who still use this ancient technique today, handing it down to future generations of craftsmen.
Among the Ceccotti Collezioni proposals featured at the fair, one of the brand’s most iconic products, the D.R.D.P. sofa in American walnut designed by Roberto Lazzeroni, which is inspired by the forms of surrealist art; the Beside You small table with minimal lines designed by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, “nomadic” by its nature and equipped with multiple finishes, including shellac so as to create a personalized object to keep close at hand at all times. Lastly, the DUO Table, which we find together with Poltrona Frau’s DUO Chairs: this is a table with a Calacatta marble top without a wooden frame and inspired by 1950s Italian design.