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The purpose of the design was to configure a space that can firstly create a transition line and filter between the warm, welcoming piazza and the more dynamic street, and secondly, to act as a place for people to sit in a town centre featuring significant historic buildings.
CZA chose smooth, discreet, yet recognizable, geometric lines for this urban decor: stone ellipses, capable of acting as a formal focal point for inhabitants and visitors to the same extent as those elements of architecture in miniature – kiosks, stone posts, fountains – which are extremely significant complements to our everyday perception of the urban landscape.
Their shape, size and position in the existing space have been carefully planned in relation to their surroundings: the church of San Vittore Martire, the votive column and optical axis of Via Matteotti, first and foremost, the houses along Corso Garibaldi and overlooking the square and lastly, the urban decor and some of the pre-existing paving.
Within a coherent theme of simple elliptical shape, the benches come in four different sizes of the same height, but on varying scales. They are made of cement chip, the composition quality and shade of which is very similar to that of Lombardia traditional, natural stones, such as limestone, porphyry and granite, thus taking advantage of light, manageable production technology to conjure up a monolithic object.