Alessi: Values Collection

Espresso Maker La Conica 3 C./0.15 l stainless steel blue

Manufacturer: Alessi
Designation: Espresso Coffee Maker
Series: Values Collection
Design: Aldo Rossi
Color: light blue
Capacity: 0.15 l/ 3 Cups
Dimensions: Ø 7.5 cm; Width: 18 cm; Height: 23.5 cm
Mateial: Espresso coffee maker in 18/10 stainless steel with copper bottom. Handle and knob in thermoplastic resin, light blue. 3 cups.
Special edition 2021

The sixth value is Research Lab, narrated by two iconic coffee makers in two unpublished trial pieces that are an exquisite expression of this research:
La conica manico lungo by Aldo Rossi and 9090 Manico forato by Richard Sapper.

Research lab: I consider Alessi to be an industrial research laboratory dedicated to a continuous mediation between the immensity of creative possibilities and the needs, or rather the dreams, of the public. Several hundred of the most stimulating designers of the various eras we have been through have worked with us. Their work is documented and preserved in our museum. La conica manico lungo and 9090 Manico forato: two particularly interesting examples of this aspect of Alessi are the coffee makers – "9090" by Richard Sapper and "La conica" by Aldo Rossi – of which we present two unpublished "laboratory proofs" from our archives. The first is a version with a perforated and coloured handle imagined by the German designer to limit the conduction
of heat during the preparation of coffee. The second has a long lateral handle, like the antique cuccume (coffee pots) that often recur in the designs of the Milanese designer. ◆ Alberto Alessi

EXTRAORDINARILY LACONIC
With a refined interplay of pure volumes, Aldo Rossi has given us an object that has made history for its essential yet original lines. This version was the first conceived by the designer, later modified to meet the constraints imposed by mass production. An icon of twentieth-century design restored to its original form, with an elegant and
modern look.

DEDICATED TO
For those who love Aldo Rossi's undisputed talent for translating his architectural language into small works of design. And for those who appreciate objects with a "high narrative content": an invitation to discover one of the most acclaimed design icons of the twentieth century in a new version.

DESIGNER
Aldo Rossi is considered one of the most important Italian architects of the second half of the twentieth century. A dramatist of abstraction, reduction and brevitas, his rigorous language of primary forms, geometries and evocations through absence has created some of the most intensely poetic works of architecture and design of his era. The first Italian designer to win the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, he designed iconic
products for Alessi such as the La cupola coffee pot and La cubica pot. "Let us not overlook the analogies between the form and its name. This will enable us to construct various combinations, the easiest but not the most obvious of which is that between 'la conica' and ‘laconic'. It remains, however, for the reader to broaden this
research." ◆ Aldo Rossi

Expressive
The elegant elongated handle is a striking element that enhances the image of a timeless object like La conica.
Unusual
A direct contact with the history of a traditionally Italian type, with a handle that pays homage to the antique coffee pots so beloved of the Milanese designer; an innovative design that at the same time subverts the established form.
Architectural
The body that develops in height, like a building, is surmounted by the peculiar conical cover that becomes the cardinal element of this small domestic architecture.
Refined
A design as refined as it is essential that transforms a simple tool for preparing coffee into an object for serving it with refined elegance.

My factory is one hundred years old. A remarkable milestone certainly, but one that touches me only to a certain extent. What interests me more than its age is its freshness, its ability always to apply new ideas, to contribute new forms to the evolution of the domestic landscape. When grandfather Giovanni founded Alessi in 1921, after leaving the Cardini company in Omegna on the shores of Lake Orta, where he had been working as a spin former and turner, he probably did not have these immediate objectives in mind: his concern was to give his new company a sufficiently solid foundation. But my grandfather had his own precise idea of quality which foresaw a well-conceived and well-made product, and this idea has remained impressed on all of us, his descendants. So we might say that the recipe my factory will continue to apply for the next hundred years is exactly this: a well-conceived and well-made product that is well-designed by an excellent designer.
Alberto Alessi