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Art and design in the name of coffee

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Art and design in the name of coffee.
The story of a coffee-library shop becoming an art gallery.

Recicled wood panels painted by hand telling the bolivian culture, the story of coffee and the importance of connection and relationship. It’s the story of the Fundación Roca Gravato in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, an old professional school transformed by Luis Alberto Roca and Rita Gravato in a coffee shop, art gallery and library.

“When my parents decided to open in their old professional school an art gallery – Luis Pedro Roca said -, we decided to move our bookstore and coffee shop there and to combine our passion for coffee and for art. It was not the first time we caught an opportunity like that: eleven years ago our bookstore was about to close and we decided to open a coffee shop inside. It was an incredible idea, even because I felt in love with coffee and I’ve soon became a SCA certified barista, and so three years ago we started roasting coffee. We buy green coffee from bolvian producers, and we have a private machine of 5Kilos roasting our Alto Tostado specialty coffee”.

Now in the Foundation Roca Gravato visitors can taste excellent coffees, they can enjoy solo exhibit of local artists and a big gallery with real size reproductions of important pieces of art made by local artists. “It’s our committment to give the possibility to see important masterpiece to Bolivian people can’t visit international museums and to share the passion for art” – said Luis Pedro Roca.

 

With hundreds of visitors per days the art gallery continue is mission of sharing the passion for art and for coffee through the coffee shop brewing coffee and cappuccino with Victoria Arduino coffee machines. “The Eagle One and E1 Prima have been inspiringing machines for our 6 resident artists – told us Luis Pedro Roca. “They replicated the back panels of the machines using recycled wood and other different materials and they started to paint them. The result was really impressive so that we start selling customized Eagle One and Prima machines, a new big step ahead for our business!”

From an anthropological point of view ‘customization’ is referred to a process of cultural appropriation and creation of bespoke design, supporting people to tell their identity, their own stories and to communicate a message. “Our resident artists did it – told us Camilla Roca – and our customers are enthusiasts because in their coffee shop they can enjoy a great coffee machine and, at the same time, a unique piece of art telling the culture of our Country, or coffee origins or the committment for a sustainable growth, or what they want to communicate”.

“For me coffee is a form of art – said Betzalel Maida, one of the six resident artists – we can paint using different surfaces and different technics as a barista can brew coffee using single origins or blend and different brewing methods. The most important thing is to offer a great experience for all your senses.”

E1 Prima selected for ADI Design Index 2021

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After Eagle One, E1 Prima by Victoria Arduino has been selected for ADI Design Index 2021. The Industrial Design Association made the announcement yesterday in Milan during an event at ADI Design Museum.
The ADI Design Index 2021 is a special selection, made by the Permanent Observatory of Design, that covers products and product systems in every market, theoretical and critical research and design-related processes or businesses. The ADI Design Index represents a preselection to Compasso d’Oro Award by ADI, the most prestigious industrial design award worldwide with the aim to enhance the value of italian design.

 

Why E1 Prima?

E1 Prima is a product representing and decoding a change in coffee consumption. Specialty products are more requested, prepared with high quality “gourmet” prime materials produced ethically and sustainably. Quality coffee is becoming a real lifestyle where people search for an exclusive coffee experience even outside the coffee shop, like food trucks, boutiques, offices, homes, and many other settings. E1 PRIMA is a versatile and eclectic coffee machine able to interpret the current trends and envision the future.

Coffee machines are not just serving tools, they also carry a real message, whose meaning expands to greater dimensions, that include an expression of the personality of the barista, roaster or coffee lover, a story, a life and tendency.

It’s very easy to customize by using different tones and natural materials like wood or technological materials like steel, resins and aluminium. That enables to express your own personality and vision through the coffee machine. E1 Prima thus becomes part of a story, a philosophy that changes with its surroundings. For his capacity to transform and create a message, the architect and ambassador of the excellence of Italian creativity in the world, Giulio Cappellini, created a special selection of “seasonal look” adding fresh new colors and textures that interpret the current trends. With many images for a unique idea of accessible glamour like a tailored dress or fashion accessory, PRIMA is available in many colours and exclusive editions.

Like in the Eagle One machine, E1 Prima by Victoria Arduino pinpointed a goal: designing a product where workflow comfort meets esthetical and functional qualities while continuing technological research and igniting innovative energy. The result is a perfect combination of esthetics and simplicity. Furthermore, it offers a sustainable design that fully considers the machine’s environmental impact in terms of economic and energy savings. NEO (New Engine Optimization) technology represents an intelligent approach of water heating and guarantees high performance while increasing energy efficiency. E1 Prima has been designed to be more compact, more performant, and more sustainable

With E1 PRIMA app barista and coffee lovers can set temperature, extraction time, steam and hot water together with the weekly programming. Moreover, the app can also create recipes, share them, or set those recipes proposed by the users’ dedicated roastery or barista. It can also become a recipe sharing device by going on the section ‘Cloud recipe’ of the Victoria Arduino app.

ADI Design Index 2020. Eagle One on stage at the Casa dell’Architettura in Rome.

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Following the exhibition at the ADI Design Museum in Milan, Eagle One flew to Rome to the Casa dell’Architettura (Architecture House) – Acquario Romano for a new exhibition showing a significant choice of products selected for the ADI Design Index, the annual review of the best Italian design.

Eagle One by Victoria Arduino has been selected for the prestigious ADI Design Index 2020 recognition. The ADI Design Index 2020 is a special selection, made by the Permanent Observatory of Design, that covers products and product systems in every market, theoretical and critical research and design-related processes or businesses.

The choice of the Roman location is very significant: the “Casa dell’Architettura” (Architecture House) is a new important cultural and exhibition institution, with the objective of promoting the Roman architectural culture and contemporary architecture in general, through national and international exhibitions, awards, conferences, meetings and initiatives.

The ADI Design Index 2020 exhibition will be open until 2 July at the Casa dell’Architettura in Rome, Piazza Manfredo Fanti 47.

Eagle One selected for ADI Design Index 2020

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Eagle One by Victoria Arduino has been selected for ADI Design Index 2020 recognition. The Industrial Design Association made the announcement yesterday in Milan at the inauguration of the ADI Design Museum.
The ADI Design Index 2020 is a special selection, made by the Permanent Observatory of Design, that covers products and product systems in every market, theoretical and critical research and design-related processes or businesses.

 

 

Why was Eagle One selected?

Eagle One is a project that was inspired by the theory of Italian Know-How that finds its roots in the quality design of the masters of the 20th century and that looks to the future. The design of Eagle One presents itself as a fluid blend of technique and aesthetics, conceived right from the start for its attention to sustainability and for its communicative potential.

Coffee machines are not just serving tools, they also carry a real message, whose meaning expands to greater dimensions, that include an expression of the personality of the barista, a story, a life and tendency.

A coffee bar’s ability to make itself unique by creating different tones and by using natural materials like wood or technological materials like steel, resins and aluminium, enables it to express its own personality and vision, also through its choice of coffee machine. Eagle One thus becomes part of a story, a philosophy that changes with its surroundings. For his capacity to transform and create a message, the architect and ambassador of the excellence of Italian creativity in the world, Giulio Cappellini, created a special Eagle One that represents a model of fusion between history and avant-garde with the use of special recycled woods, ecological resins and aluminium.

In Eagle One, Victoria Arduino places the focus not only on technological research and innovation, but also on the pleasure of living and working with a product that perfectly combines aesthetics and function. The result is a complete sensorial experience both for those who work with Eagle One, with its ease of use, and for customers, with its innovative NEO extraction technology.

The design of Eagle One also draws attention to the environmental impact of the product, in terms of energy and financial saving. The new materials employed and the project design have enabled this machine to reduce emissions by 23%, compared to machines in the same category, and, in particular, to make use of excess energy and avoid waste with an additional saving of 8% of the total consumption of the machine.

 

E1 Prima and the icons of design at Interni Designer’s Week

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Living the coffee experience wherever and whenever you want, and in an immersive way to involve all the senses. The opportunity is just around the corner: on April 12-23 E1 Prima goes back to Milan for a new edition of Interni Designer’s Week through a real celebration of the icons of Italian and international design. The installation, titled PRIMA MEETS ICONS, intends to pay homage to and mention some of the most important design icons through a special edition of E1 Prima designed by the architect Alfonso Arosio.

 

Victoria Arduino’s connection with the world of design is getting stronger and stronger. The special edition of E1 Prima, in fact, is an exaltation of the lines of design icons: the eagle placed on the back of the coffee machine highlights the lines of the most famous design objects such as the chaise longue or armchairs or lamp.  In the minimal texture, the icons are represented in a three-dimensional way and hand-drawn by the architect Arosio.

 

To accompany the installation Prima Meets Icons, there are also three special E1 Prima designed by Giulio Cappellini with textures and colors that represent the trends of the moment. Many different images for a single idea of ​​glamour.

The design with essential, contemporary, and refined lines of E1 Prima, in fact, brings to an immersive experience that involves all senses from taste to sight, thanks also to the special edition created for the Designer’s Week in Milan.

 

The installation “Prima meets Icons” will be present at Cafezal Specialty Coffee from 12 to 23 April 2021 and is part of the 2021 Interni Designer’s Week edition, which aims to support the restart and rekindle the creative spirit of Milan.

Designers week. Forms and colors create pleasant locations and social spaces.

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Design is an exemplary interpretation of a transition, notably through coffee shops, the home, or the office. The spaces in which we relate with the external environment become an extraordinary reflection of ourselves. Famous international designers Giulio Cappellini and Leonardo Talarico portrayed precisely that last November during the Milano Designers Week.

Interni magazine interviewed the two designers for their journal’s last edition (read the interview here). They pointed out that the spot where one would connect with the outside, offline and online, becomes a sort of stage that reflects us from within. That is how Cappellini and Talarico created a unique installation made of particular objects to transmit a positive and colorful vision that evokes sunlight, brilliance, and creativity.

For the impressive installation of the Meeting Point at Milan Designer’s Week, Cappellini and Talarico involved some of the major players of Italian and international design, from Kvadrat, the textile company, to Icone Luce for the lighting, Cappellini, and Moroso for the furniture and the same Giulio Cappellini for the six unique color versions of the E1 Prima coffee machines.