Set on the Californian coast, Minotti’s resort offers a virtual escape while presenting the company’s new 2020 collection in a summery light

A view of The Club, designed by Roberto Minotti as the ideal backdrop to the company’s 2020 collection

Every year, Italian furniture company Minotti creates a virtual setting to present its new 2020 collection to architects, interior designers and creative professionals. Conceived by the company’s Co-CEO, Roberto Minotti, who trained as an architect before joining the family company, the imaginary environments serve as a context to the new pieces as they are presented to the world.

‘I come from an architecture background, that was my passion way before furniture, so for me it is most interesting to present our furniture inside an architecture,’ explains Minotti. ‘Every year we have worked not only on the collection, but also on the atmosphere through which to present it. We have given different moods to these environments, offering new ways to interpret the product: a virtual exercise that enhances each product’s function.’

A sketch by Roberto Minotti of the resort he created to present the company’s 2020 collection

Californian virtual resort

This year, the concept has acquired new meaning, becoming a tool for escapism as people were confined at home, offering a way to show the collection to design professionals worldwide as travel restrictions took place, but also offering an important insight into the company’s world.

The backdrop to the resort are the hills, cliffs and beaches of Carmel by the Sea, and the rich Californian vegetation surrounding it. It’s an area that has traditionally offered inspiration to Minotti as an architect, who has admired the modernist structures of Richard Neutra (and also looking further afield, to Mies Van Der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright) and the simplified forms that are in constant dialogue between the indoors and outdoors - a poigniant theme for Minotti.

The architectural creation is titled The Club, and is conceived as a Seaview Resort and Lodges, featuring a space that blends indoor and outdoor, hospitality and residential spaces, bringing to life the versatility of the new range. It’s a structure of pure volumes and clean geometries, which develops over a cliffside with split levels and views over the sea.

‘This year we created something that is very close to our historical savoir-faire,’ explains Minotti. ‘With an architecture that is linear, square, and using materials such as stone, wood and glass. Like our furniture, it features simple forms that are enriched by quality materials and finishes: from an essential shape we create something that has a strong depth of quality.’

A view of The Club, featuring terraces and decks at different levels, immersed in the Californian vegetation and overlooking the sea

New Minotti 2020 collection

Terraces, decks and pools set the stage for the outdoor collections, while the indoor pieces are displayed across lounges, restaurants and cocktail bars overlooking the sea. ‘The backbone of the collection itself is the fluid and continuous passage between indoor and outdoor,’ adds Minotti, citing a strong aesthetic coherence between the pieces – something the brand has developed carefully throughout the recent collections, and that is brought to life by the carefully considered architecture.

‘This year we created something that is very close to our historical savoir-faire’

The Mattia sofa and armchairs by Rodolfo Dordoni, shown inside The Club’s lobby

The Minotti 2020 collection shown across the resort features new pieces by the brand’s creative director Rodolfo Dordoni, as well as furniture by Nendo, Marcio Kogan / studio mk27, GamFratesi and Christophe Delcourt. They are well-crafted, considered pieces that bear the signature style of their creators brought together under the exquisite, serious craftsmanship of Minotti.

Blending into the environment, the pieces complete and complement the spaces of The Club. Highlights include the Daiki chairs, by Marcio Kogan / studio mk27, inspired by his travels to Japan and featuring 1960s-inspired silhouettes, new sartorial sofas by Dordoni, and the Fynn collection of chairs by GamFratesi, merging Scandinavian sensitivity with Italian savoir faire.

‘The collection is characterized by simple volumes, which have been enriched by the special attention to details and materials,’ observes Minotti. ‘We have created an architecture to reflect this.’ §

One of the outdoor decks, furnished with Rodolfo Dordoni’s Florida Sofas

GamFratesi’s Fynn chairs

The Circle restaurant, designed as an imposing flying saucer with views across the vegetation and the sea

Inside the restaurant, furnished with Fynn chairs by GamFratesi and Linha dining tables by Marcio Kogan / studio mk27

The resort is immersed in lush, Mediterranean-style vegetation

In one of the resort’s residencies, white Blazer sofa by Rodolfo Dordoni, Fynn chairs by GamFratesi and Linha coffee table by Marcio Kogan / studio mk27

The Torii collection by Nendo (featuring sofas and chairs, both pictured) is characterized by minimalist modular shapes, a discreetly punctuated back and a leg design inspired by the entrance gate to Shinto shrines in Japan

Rodolfo Dordoni’s Blazer sofas are complemented by the 1960s lines of the Daiki chair by Marcio Kogan / studio mk27. Inspired by the architect’s travels to Japan, the chairs are created using sophisticated wood crafting techniques. Pictured here in palisander santos and black leather upholstery

Rodolfo Dordoni’s Sunray seating

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