Outdoor living

The project for the Centro Cinofilo Cusinato in the northern Italian town of Pove del Grappa (VI) is based on the idea of a slow-paced journey in step with the rhythms of nature in search of the essence of authenticity. The client’s love of nature and animals began with bird breeding as a hobby in the 1960s and developed gradually over the years. This led to the opening of a small bird and flower shop in 1986, followed in the 2000s by a large, modern store offering products and services for animals, gardening and agriculture.
This 20,000 square metre multifunctional centre in the countryside near the city of Vicenza offers a wide range of services for animals and their owners. One of the facilities is a concept store, a multifunctional space that uses visual marketing principles to provide a contemporary shopping experience. The double-height reinforced concrete building performs various functions and looks out onto the green landscape through large windows. The furnishings and surface coverings consist of natural materials with the aim of recreating fragments of landscape inside the building. Wood integrates perfectly into the setting, creating a warm atmosphere and linking up effectively with the outdoor space, which includes large areas for animal rearing, educational pathways and a small pet cemetery called the Rainbow Bridge.
The exterior facades of the complex are clad with wooden slats that integrate harmoniously with the surroundings. The same wooden slat modules are used inside the building for the gallery parapet and as cladding on several walls. Many of the furnishings are also made of wood, including creative reuse of pallets for interior design elements such as tables, chairs, shelves and portions of surface coverings. Architecturally, the building consists of a two-storey box-shaped volume supported internally by bare columns. The large internal space is divided into a number of areas, dominated by a large gallery that provides an overall view of the interior.
The floor covering material chosen for the ground floor and the gallery is the Country “Land of wood” collection from Blustyle by Cotto d’Este, which fits in perfectly with the design philosophy. Aspen porcelain tiles in pale, elegant colours and a 20×120 cm size were installed in a staggered pattern on around 2,000 square metres of floor to create a powerful shade variation effect. The wood-look tiles blend in with the chosen interior design style and have an intentionally antique timeworn surface recreating the details, knots, cracks and scratches typical of natural materials. Along with their surface appearance, the tiles also stand out for their exceptional mechanical strength and ease of cleaning, qualities that are especially important given the large numbers of people using the complex.