FABIO NOVEMBRE
IL FIORE DI NOVEMBRE

There are some talents who, for one reason or another, completely mesmerize others. Fabio Novembre is one of those people for me. I had the pleasure of meeting him for the first time in 2007 at the Promosedia Salone in Udine, Italy, as part of a unique, marginal and destabilizing Pecha Kucha presentation, switching from a cathedral image to a daring cliché, on the count of 20 images X 20 seconds, in the Pecha Kucha fashion of the time!

Wondering what Pecha Kecha was? Brush up on the new concept of the turn of the last millennium, alas, already vintage, 20 years later…

Pecha Kucha

The eclectic Novembre commanded the audience’s attention, mesmerizing all present by his speech and the images worth a thousand words to describe his philosophy of life and the poetry behind his work.

RWritten by Juli Pisano, for INT. design, February 2021 and inspired by an article by Alessandra Vittoria Fanelli, published in INTÉRIEURS 48, FALL 2009.

FABIO’S FLOWER POWER
To see more about the project here

The Design Museum of the Milan Triennial, a design and architecture showcase worldwide, hosted the successful exhibition Il fiore di Novembre in April 2009. The art show was a play on words with his signature of choice, the flower, and his name, Novembre. Our Milanese correspondent and loyal friend Alessandra Vittoria Fanelli was present to discover the sensual aura of the man, his story, his work.

The spectacular exhibition set-up, specifially designed by Fabio Novembre and organized into two distinct parts, allowed visitors to discover the designer’s work in an unprecedented manner by providing them with new interpretative keys.

As soon as visitors stepped through the door, they became an audience in the face of an enormous flower made of mosaic duplicated in space, one that seemed to spread indefinitely. A striking contrast between the asphalt black floor and saturated red colour of the flower enhanced the dramatic effect.

Further, as though upon a stage, two rows of seats placed on a small platform invited spectators to watch others move about like actors, becoming protagonists of the same exhibition they were visiting.

Beside the stage, visitors/spectators could enter a narrow corridor equipped with interactive screens leading them into the heart of the exhibition, which was not simply a display of Fabio Novembre’s projects but an illustration of his creative path in various original sections, from the designer’s inspirational sources through various sensorial stimuli up to the final result.

MULTITALENTED MAESTRO
From product design to interiors and architecture, a poetic genius transcends from Novembre’s work … a perfectly Italian flavour!

Here is an array of his accomplishments … all different from the other!

PRODUCT DESIGN

2021 – 3D PRINTED FURNITURE FOR SAMMONTANA
To see more about the project here

Some say the Italians invented summer. One thing’s sure … they invented gelato!

Hear Fabio describe the story behind the new collection of 3D printed furniture from recycled plastics for the Italian gelato maestro Sammontana.

2019 – ITALIC FOR DRIADE
To see more about the project here

Appointed Artistic Director of the brand in 2019, Fabio created the Italic armchair for Driade.

Here, there is no second meaning and there is nothing to add … its name describes everything … its shape and its proposed seated position, all at an angle, quite simply!

2018-THE BOTTLE IN THE ROCK POUR BOMBAY SAPPHIRE
To see more about the project here

November designed for Bombay Sapphire, a metaphysical sculpture made of small blocks of glued plexiglass that supports the bottle of gin and creates colour changes depending on the viewer’s angle of perception.

INTERIOR DESIGN

2013 – HIT GALLERY & STORE, HONG KONG
To see more about the project here

HITGallery stores capture the essence and spirit of Italy in wonderful and new ways. Drawing inspiration from the paintings of Giorgio De Chirico and the surrealist atmospheres, he created through the distortion of perspectives, Studio Novembre developed open boxes “in Italian piazza fashion”.

Clients may meet up and come together to explore the enigmas of their existence and rethink their actual identity in the contemporary world… Nothing less!

2001 – DIVINA DISCOTHEQUE
To see more about the project here

The client’s input? The nightclub’s name: Divina. For November, that was more than enough to inspire a storytelling layout. If men are from Mars and women from Venus, November reminds us that the attraction is inevitable between the two despite the opposition, and this, since the dawn of time.

Always astonished even fascinated, mystified, amazed by the fact that a woman gives birth and creates life, the creator wanted to illustrate here the deification of woman. Mission accomplished. The divine and cozy atmosphere is more than achieved.

2003 – UNA HOTEL VITTORIA, FLORENCE
To see more about the project here

Here, the designer was inspired by the image of a tree with branches spreading across the world and roots firmly anchored in its native soil.

More than a hotel, a spatial narrative was created in Florence, possibly the most fertile ground in history for the flourishing of the arts, with the idea of capturing the Renaissance spirit of the city. A story that presents mobility of the planet, presence in absence and intellectual nomadism.

1998 – BAR LODI A. K. A. WELCOME TO WARHOL
To see more about the project here

Humans, words, spaces … these are the ingredients for a personal architectural recipe, according to Fabio Novembre.

One enters the Lodi bar through the barcode that wraps around the entrance hall. He continues by entering a tunnel cluttered with the luminous presences of the inhabitants of the Factory, whose cunning shadows on the ground mark the passage like an organic barcode.

Walking here in the shadow of Warhol means the tunnel is over, and that a drink at the bar is within reach!

ARCHITECTURE

2021 – VILLA AL GURM, ABU DHABI
To see more about the project here

This year, Fabio Novembre designed a house built on an artificial island in Abu Dhabi.

The house is set around a reflective swimming pool that faces the sea and has its main entrance hidden behind a waterfall. You know, a house like we dream of in our wildest dreams!

2017 – AUTOMOBILI LAMBORGHINI S.P.A.
To see more about the project here

In 2016, Lamborghini Automobili CEO Stefano Domenicali gave Studio Novembre carte blanche to explore renovation options of the Sant’Agata Bolognese polishing garage.

Carte blanche to November equals a project part of the tradition and turned towards the future, completely stripped of all constraints!

2018 – STUART WEITZMAN BOUTIQUE
To see more about the project here

When Stuart Weitzman approached November for the design of his boutique in Rome, the designer envisioned precious boxes wrapped in artist Christo’s style, unfolding like boxes of gifts to customers. The uninterrupted ribbon thus runs along space and creates a path in which the shoes become vectors of desire.

ANCORA, NOVEMBRE ?

Eager to learn more about the man and discover more of his work?

Note to his résumé… In 2018, Novembre became the scientific director of the Milan design school Domus Academy, and in 2019, he was appointed artistic director of Driade.

Meet him through interviews with journalist Caterina Lunghi conducted for Domus Academy.