Nuova wants to 'bring time travel to the world' with their debut at Milan Design Week
Californian design studio Nuova has been working behind closed doors for some of the biggest names in luxury and tech. The studio makes its public debut at Milan Design Week 2024, and take visitors on a journey back to 1971
Since 2018, the Californian design studio Nuova has been working behind closed doors for some of the biggest names in luxury and tech. With their Milan Design Week 2024 exhibition, founders Rodrigo Caula and Enrico Pietra plan to make their public debut – and take visitors on a journey back to 1971.
‘We want to bring time travel to the world,’ announces Rodrigo Caula, who alongside Enrico Pietra makes up Venice Beach-based design studio Nuova. It’s a bold statement, but according to Caula, the pair claim to have some experience with the phenomenon: a residency at artist Andrea Zittel’s A-Z West in Joshua Tree transported them back to the 1970s. ‘It’s an alignment of every sense in one moment,’ Caula clarifies. ‘If you can curate everything to be period-correct – from the music to the scent to the food – you can travel in time.’
Caula and Pietra avow to recreate that moment with their immersive performance that will induce visitors to time travel back to 1971 — and introduce them to their first furniture collection.
Nuova makes Milan Design Week debut
The pair first met at ECAL in Switzerland. Pietra hails from Italy and Caula from Canada, but following a few years working at ECAL, and Tesla and Yeezy respectively, they settled in Venice Beach and founded Nuova. At first, they developed new products and researched novel materials behind the scenes for luxury and technology brands. In 2022, they launched their first public-facing project, Aeir, a fragrance company they describe as ‘the world’s first carbon-negative luxury brand’.
In fact, the pair will call upon their knowledge of fragrances for the multi-sensory Design Week performance. Guests will enter into a period-correct waiting room, where they will wait to be ushered into the Sala, which recreates a living room in California in the 1970s. Once inside, they will have four minutes to ‘time travel’ within the space, furnished with Nuova’s first furniture collection, including blown glass lamps produced in Murano and a modular sofa upholstered in Torri Lana textiles in Bergamo. Nuova will also bring their powers of dimension-shifting to Capsule Plaza, where it has been tapped by Rimowa to construct a ‘Time Travel Café’ within Spazio Maiocchi.
‘In the future, we’ll want to travel back to 1990 Tokyo,’ ponders Pietra. ‘For us, that would be a dream.’
Nuova @Via Stampa is on show during Milan Design Week 2024, from 13-21 April at Via Stampa 8, Milan
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Laura May Todd, Wallpaper's Milan Editor, based in the city, is a Canadian-born journalist covering design, architecture and style. She regularly contributes to a range of international publications, including T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Azure and Sight Unseen, and is about to publish a book on Italian interiors.
-
‘There are hidden things out there, we just need to look’: Studiomama's stone animals have quirky charm
Studiomama founder's Nina Tolstrup and Jack Mama sieve the sands of Kent hunting down playful animal shaped stones for their latest collection
By Ali Morris Published
-
Tokyo firm Built By Legends gives fresh life to a performance icon, Nissan’s R34 GT-R
This Japanese restomod brings upgrades and enhancements to the Nissan R34 GT-R, ensuring the cult of the Skyline stays forever renewed
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Squire & Partners' radical restructure: 'There are a lot of different ways up the firm to partnership'
Squire & Partners announces a radical restructure; we talk to the late founder Michael Squire's son, senior partner Henry Squire, about the practice's new senior leadership group, its next steps and how architecture can move on from 'single leader culture'
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Design showcase Alcova announces its 2025 locations in Milan
Alcova, the roving design exhibition, will expand its footprint with two new locations in the northern Milan suburb of Varedo – a former factory and ancient greenhouses
By Laura May Todd Published
-
Elevate your interiors with Wallpaper* July 2024, the Design Directory
Wallpaper* July 2024 rounds up the best new furniture, lighting, kitchens, bathrooms and more – on sale now
By Bill Prince Published
-
Casa Mutina displays Ronan Bouroullec's creative universe
Ronan Bouroullec's designs for Mutina at Milan Design Week 2024 include outdoor tiles as well as ceramic editions
By Cristina Kiran Piotti Published
-
Jaipur Rugs unveils collaboration with Chanel's yarn maker Vimar1991
During Milan Design Week 2024, Jaipur Rugs demonstrated its expertise through a collaboration with Chanel-owned yarn experts Vimar1991
By Cristina Kiran Piotti Published
-
Wallpaper* and SNOW explore the alchemy of grown diamonds in a new film
Wallpaper* and grown-diamond specialist SNOW partnered on the Class of ’24 exhibition during Milan Design Week 2024 and a new film exploring the art and alchemy of the laboratory’s process
By Simon Mills Published
-
Adal brings Japan's disappearing natural materials to furniture design
Japanese brand Adal Look into Nature exhibited for the first time at Salone del Mobile 2024, showcasing its contemporary products made using igusa, a traditional material whose manufacturing is slowly disappearing
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
Toiletpaper Apartment debuts in Milan with a 'sophisticated' Alex Prager collaboration
Toiletpaper present 'ToiletAlex PaperPrager' their new unsettling projects on the occasion of Milan Design Week 2024
By Cristina Kiran Piotti Published
-
Japan in Milan: the best of Japanese design at Milan Design Week 2024
Discover the best of Japanese design showcasing innovative designs from terrazzo tables to tree-inspired textiles at Milan Design Week and Salone del Mobile 2024
By Danielle Demetriou Published