art. 901 Shop counter in silver perforated metal plate, with

sides and surfaces in turquoise water-painted birch.

150 x 43.5 x 60 cm

The word “piazza” (town square) is used to designate the typical Italian place that symbolically

represents encounters and being part of and creating a community. The piazza is a place of

meetings, exchanges, pauses, and discoveries, a place where there may be many people

or just a few, where you can spend time in groups or separate yourself from them.

It’s an inviting space, a space of daily transits and pauses, and lends itself to assemblies

of adults and children, becoming the setting and stage for parties, theatrical productions,

and cultural initiatives.

The piazza is therefore characterized by a sort of pulsing rhythm, alternately full and

empty, quiet and noisy, where children can encounter many opportunities for meeting,

playing, creating stories, making discoveries, dressing up in fabrics, colors and lights,

creating a theater, playing with shadows, reflecting, multiplying and modifying their own

image. It’s a multipurpose space even though it is highly characterized in its cultural and

educational aspects.

The traditional game of playing shop, using conventional

coins, allows the ancient ritual of buying and

selling to take place. Children love this game, which

gives them the opportunity to explore the value of

numbers and operations such as addition and subtraction.

They arrive at examining the relationship

between different units of measure, such as weight and size, with the utmost naturalness.

This situation is therefore particularly rich in cognitive

possibilities that are fun and interesting. In the design,

we consciously avoided the traditional image of

the local shop (so well-loved by adults); we preferred

to reinterpret it using new, more contemporary and