Architects transformed into writers, collaborating alongside the best street artists of our time in a challenge of graffiti strokes. That is what Street Arch, an initiative promoted by Tanini Home in collaboration with the network of Towant events and with Corà as the design partner, is all about. lts purpose? To push urban design professionals into rethinking the cities of the future with an approach «from the other side of the fence».
lt is an out-and-out contest that has reached its second edition and whose stage is, once again, the Tanini showroom in Florence. Three important architectural studios in the city — Rosso19 (rosso19.com) , Fabbricanove (fabbricanove.com) and Area17 (area17.it) — accepted the challenge to literally dirty their hands by creating one large mural each on the exterior wall of the showroom, under the supervision of a professional writer from the contemporary art gallery Street Level Gallery.
A wall was provided for presenting the work of the studios one by one; after one month the wall was whitewashed, leaving space for the mural of the next participating studio.
The goal of the initiative was to take the participants out of their comfort zone, encouraging them to look at urban spaces through the eyes of those who know how to transform those spaces into great works of contemporary art.
Street Arch, the 2023 winner
The three works were assessed by a jury that included:
Street Level Gallery
Firenze Urban Lifestyle, the architecture, design and culture magazine
Rossella Conte, a journalist from La Nazione
When the contest carne to an end, the jury chose Fabbricanove as the 2023 winner, a studio that worked alongside street artist MrG to give form and colour to the mural called L’effimero attraverso, a colour explosion that communicates the energy of the moments of celebration that illuminate our lives.
Artist and architects almost seemed to «challenge» each other for the occasion: MrG, in fact, had to work around the obstacle of a gridded architectural element, making all the power of his art explode between the black stripes.
During the award presentation evening, the showroom windows were decorateci with 5 live performances by the studios Samarro, Pierattelli, Parchitelli, Carrabs and Tricot. Tricot won a special award, giving new life to the creations of the designer Enzo Mari.
Towards multisensorial design
Different worlds that meet, with the common interest of rewriting the design of urban areas. Through Street Arch another point of view can be seen, that of an underground culture that is trying to consider the city from an untraditional perspective, transforming the spaces createci by architects into a «support» for contemporary art.
The result is design that retrieves social spaces, heightening the multisensorial experiences that enrich our daily lives.
The first edition, held in 2022, was won by the studio from Florence B-Arch which, together with the writer Urto, createci the mural «Città sospesa«.
Corà Parquet, always at the roots of experimentation
Art in all its forms is where experimentation, research, and innovation can rewrite the rules of design. This is why Corà Parquet chose to support the Street Arch contest.
lt is a unique and originai fermat that allows us to keep dialogue flowing with the new creative people of our time, taking wood and its eternai modernism into the centre of ideas and visions far tomorrow’s urban spaces.
We have only one purpose: to support those who use their ingenuity daily to give new lymph to the change towards designing that is continually more ethical, social and sustainable. Without giving up on being modem and incredibly genial.
