Light and Matter
in the Design Arena

Simes, which has always paid close attention to the needs and wants of the designer, now has a new touch point on the global stage: Arena.

A location where material and architecture take centre stage in a cultural and sensory story as a consequence of the collaborative efforts of several companies with the highest standing in the design industry.

Arena is a "Mental Restaurant" where you can book now to enjoy the most refined ingredients of the culture of Design and Research, in a place that places at the center of every meeting, the freedom of expression, the quality of talents and the search for topics capable of leaving a semantic trace made of words, signs, objects, sounds, impressions and intuitions.

Maurizio De Caro

Located in the central Via Santa Cecilia, 6 in Milan and designed by architect Michele De Lucchi, Arena is where matter, light, and architecture truly discover new forms of expression.

The building, which housed the famed ‘La Penna d'Oca' restaurant (the cradle of futurist cuisine) in the 1930s, designed by the great Giò Ponti,, retains traces of the view of the Naviglio canal that once ran along Via San Damiano.

In a different Milan, the windows opened directly onto the water. Arena was previously a rest stop and a coal storage area. It was housed in an 18th-century structure on the site of the circle of canals.

Thanks to the collaboration between Arch. Michele de Lucchi and Listone Giordano, who first discovered the historical peculiarity of this place,  Arena had been transformed in a place where the design principle focuses on the desire to show the company values even before the company’s products.

It is then obtained an open amphitheater open to organize presentations, conferences and exhibitions.

“Arena is a showroom, a flagship store, an exhibition space and much more besides. It is also a public forum or “agora”, a place for thinking about the future, creating culture, sharing ideas and knowledge”

Michele De Lucchi

Listone Giordano therefore offers Milan a laboratory of ideas and projects: Arena is a space for the community, it is the return of a location to the city.

Absolute protagonist, the design of the materials in all its forms with partners of absolute prestige characterized by a strong family heritage and operating in the world of design, with a marked attention to detail, to the beauty, the seriousness of the people and the pleasure of being good professionals. Listone Giordano opens the doors to Vaselli, Panzeri, SIMES, Paghera, Passoni and HD Surface. 

SIMES brings its vision of architectural and outdoor lighting and immediately enters into a relationship with a space of great charm and historical and cultural significance.

In order to enhance the entire nave and its construction materials, it therefore develops a lighting design that is first and foremost respectful of the architectural context in which it is positioned and a series of lighting scenes that vary in accordance with the dynamics of the space's use.

The element that today represents the emblem of flexibility in lighting design is undoubtedly the IP System® , an IP54 system designed and developed for outdoor and humid environments but that can be safely inserted into the interior thanks to the clean and timeless design that distinguishes it.

Its great adaptability to the environment of Arena, is expressed in a double system installation suspended on the sides of the nave for its entire length of 10 meters.

A composition of continuous lighting rod downward-facing for the diffused lighting of the central arena, of light rods directed upwards to generate a veil of light that reveals the volumes of the vaults and a succession of plug-in spotsorientable, directed towards the points to be highlighted in the different set-up situations.

The entire system is managed by a home automation system, which enables the mixing of all the lighting components to produce limitless lighting sequences.
It is possible to characterise the space based on the various situations that animate it, from daily visits within the exhibition itinerary to thematic evening events that involve the public in talks, concerts, conferences, and taste experiences, by dimming each element and combining them to create carefully studied light balances.
Arena really serves as a discussion and debate centre, with a full calendar of events centred on art and architecture, in addition to serving as a venue for showcasing the goods of the numerous businesses that call it home.

The placement of the new Between projectors at the base of the arches is a further component of Simes' lighting design that aims to emphasise the architecture's form and materials to the fullest. 

Between, which consists of two luminaires connected by a central joint that permits independent orientation of each, emphasises the profile of the arches while also softly brushing the original stone's texture to produce a highly evocative atmosphere.

Arena is the perfect setting for recounting the changes and trends in living from both an architectural and cultural point of view because each partner contributes to bringing the most fascinating and cutting-edge subjects of the architectural scene to the stage.

It is not only a place for product presentations,  but a place for sharing stories and discussions with a rich calendar of events.

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