Design | Luca Nichetto Turns Manhattan Into A Dish Rack | CFile

Breaking News: Large, saucer-shaped objects are hovering over downtown Manhattan. Authorities advise everyone to stay indoors.

Designer Luca Nichetto created a line of dish racks/desktop organizers out of silicone, drawing inspiration from a strange object he found in the office of a business associate and Christopher Nolan’s 2010 film Inception. The dish rack, of the same name, was picked up by the Seletti company of Italy.

Nichetto said he was visiting Stefano Seletti at his office in Vladana, Mantua and saw a model of the Manhattan peninsula on Seletti’s desk. Nichetto said the object had no particular function, but it got his mind working about projects that could play with the “surreal proportions” the tiny city offered. The designer pulls a quote from the movie which references meme-theory, the city seen as a virus-like idea expressing itself collectively.

Nichetto discussed how, at one part during the movie, New York City appeared to fold into itself, as though it were made of rubber. “Nichetto’s Manhattan turns into a colored silicone dish drainer or desk organizer, where skyscrapers hold up tableware or stationary items, flexing under their weight.”

The rack comes in pink, blue or gray. While the visual aspects of the rack as both a dish dryer and a desktop organizer look fantastic, Nichetto missed an opportunity to include a pencil holder. That could be his own personal taste, however. Personally, I would have included a giant ape climbing a skyscraper but that could be why I’m not working in the field of high-end design.

Nichetto was born in 1976 in Venice and he studied at the Art Institute there, his biography states. Afterwards he attended the University Institute of Architecture of Venice (IUAV), where he earned a degree in Industrial Design. He began his professional career in 1999 by designing his first projects in Murano glass for Salviati. He’s won numerous awards and was recently nominated by Elle Décor Italy for Designer of the Year, 2013. Nichetto has collaborated with Italian and international companies, including Berga, Bosa, Casamania, Cassina, David Design, De Padova, Discipline, Established & Sons, Fornasarig, Foscarini, Fratelli Guzzini, Gallotti & Radice, Glass, Globo, Italesse, La Chance, King’s, Kristalia, Mabeo, MG Lab, Moroso, Offecct, Ogeborg, One Nordic Furniture Company, Petite Friture, Salviati, Skitsch, Skultuna, Tacchini, TobeUs, Venini and Zero.

Bill Rodgers is a Contributing Editor at CFile.

Above image: Inception by Luca Nichetto. Photographs courtesy of the designer.

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