Valcucine
Valcucine was founded on 17th April1980. The partners were Giovanni Dino Cappellotto, Gabriele Centazzo, Franco Corbetta and Silvio Verardo.
In 1981 Mr. Centazzo designed the “Ghianda” model, the first door with a curved “soft line” edge and a handle recessed in the door panel.
The “5stagioni” model was presented in 1983. It was the first example of a modular “just-in-time” door in which the colour was added by means of a silicone trim (an absolute novelty). The “Mela” model was launched the same year, the first door in the world to be coated with PVC with the possibility of deforming the surface; another distinguishing element was the use of wood laminate on drawer fronts that were coloured in an exclusive way.
In 1984 the “Quadrifoglio” model was presented to substitute the “Katia” model. “Quadrifoglio” was the first door with a wooden frame and a panel that was flush with the frame.
The “Artematica” kitchen programme was introduced in 1988 and is still in production. It revolutionised the kitchen door concept: it was the first door in the world to have an aluminium frame that was not visible from the outside, the first in the world with a layered, 5mm thick HPL panel, the first in the world in glass without a visible frame and hinge, the first with a system that conveyed water without wetting the door and the first in the world to be produced in wood and HPL in a single block.
From the point of view of production “Artematica” eliminated the finished door warehouse and introduced the “just-in-time” production system. Valcucine formed a network of satellite suppliers with a quality and environmental-protection outlook (e.g. that used water-based instead of solvent-based varnishes).
The “Semantica” kitchen model was presented in 1991 and was a new way of composing a kitchen by creating defined blocks. “Semantica” replaced “Quadrifoglio” that had by now been copied by many competitors.
In 1993 the “Fabula” model was launched, the first kitchen with coloured wood and doors inlaid with pictograms. For the designer Centazzo, it represented the Mediterranean dream.
The “Ricicla” model was presented in 1996 with an aluminium framed door and a 2mm door panel. Being the first to adopt technologies coming from the car industry, it was possible to make a 2mm thick wooden panel that was as resistant as a 20mm chipboard one.
In 1996 a new kitchen ergonomics system was introduced (“Logica System”) launching the new 80cm depth with equipped back section, the “Libera” hood that freed head movements, the “Ala” wall unit with a door that opened and closed by exploiting only the force of gravity.
In 2002 the wall unit concept was revolutionised by means of an aluminium and glass structure, a door in honeycombed aluminium and LED lighting (“Aerius” wall unit).
“La cucina Alessi” kitchen was presented during the Eurocucina ’06 exhibition, in an exclusive space outside the exhibition centre. This is a kitchen programme developed by permission and together with Alessi and designed by the architect Alessandro Mendini.
In 2007 Valcucine received a certificate of excellence from the Italian Association of Manufacturers. Valcucine also received a prize for innovation by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.
In 2007 Riciclantica kitchen model perfected the Ricicla product by updating its aesthetics and improving the disassemble of the doorframe, making it of a single material.
During 2008 Valcucine’s Artematica Vitrum glass kitchen has been displayed at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in Cellophane House, one of five on-site installations in the exhibition: Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling: www.momahomedelivery.org. Part 1 of the exhibit takes us through the history of prefabricated housing with pictures, film and models; Part 2, in an outdoor space to the west of the museum, shows prefabrication as a response to the urgent need for sustainability.
Cellophane House is a full-scale prototype house that radically reinvents the way buildings are made: an aluminum frame serves as a matrix on which fabricated floors, ceilings, stairs are attached by bolted connections. The house is an impermanent object to be disassembled—not demolished—at the end of its life. Valcucine’s Artematica Vitrum kitchen makes ecological sense in the context of KieranTimberlake’s Cellophane House.
