Body Building

The Luxury Gym

Body Building is a magnifying glass for examining and understanding one of our greatest contemporary obsessions: mens sana in corpore sano?

The association of precious and sophisticated materials with the basic and unrefined elements that constitute the commonplace apparatus found in any run of the mill gym (or more aptly, in an imaginary “anti-gym”) seems like ready- made fragments animated by that irony typical of when two unknown universes, light-years apart, meet: the gym and the home environment. The objects are dissected and studied, designed to elude the perception of the viewer, to discover a world obsessed by the mania of exercise but also of the obsession with perfect manufacture – again a characteristic that distinguishes the work of the Milanese duo. The contrast between the discipline and effort, which gym gear usually at first glance suggests, is here overruled by the pure aesthetic enjoyment of the objects themselves. Though on the surface these objects maintain the clearest characteristics of their distant cousins – those of regular pieces of gym equipment – they elude this first impression and become objects conceived for the utmost leisure.”
Maria Cristina Didero

“…the Body Building collection is a playful take on familiar gym shapes; part aesthetic entertainment, part formal exercise.  Biagetti and Baldassari’s collaboration is an ongoing dialogue: the pair throw challenges at each other throughout the creative process, resulting in an eclectic mix of colours and materials.”
Rosa Bertoli (Wallpaper)

Body Building creates a short-circuit between aesthetics and function, challenging our expectations.

“Alberto Biagetti and Laura Baldassari’s Body Building project promises to challenge our expectations, and it delivers on that score right off the bat.”
Rob Wilkes (We-heart.com)

“When designer Alberto Biagetti and artist Laura Baldassari join creative energies, they produce objects and installations that strike a balance between aesthetic experience and a “functionality” that is packed with surprises. This is beautifully manifested in their latest labor of love, the “Body Building” collection, which fuses the rough crudeness of the gym world with the refinement of design in the most interesting ways.”
Maha Majzoub (Curve Magazine)

The “anti-gym” which Body Building creates is made up of the rings of male gymnasts which become an elaborate chandelier in aluminium and brass with electric blue pony skin details; the pink crystal top of a coffee-table rests on a series of hexagonal steel dumbbells; the pommel horse used for one of the most demanding and acrobatic disciplines of men’s gymnastics becomes a bench in silver leather (where you must under no circumstances work up a sweat); a series of stools in contrasting colours are surrounded by belts tightly pulled like the resistance bands used for weight-free workouts; the carpets made of high quality leather are inspired by the floors and multi-layered markings of sports courts. Every piece of the Body Building collection turns the spotlight back onto the human body – making it, once again, the centre of attention – the centre of the home.

All the pieces in the Body Building collection are unique and hand-made by Italian artisans.