Showroom

Molteni&C

Italian furniture, closets, kitchens, and outdoor since 1934, with Dada and UniFor.

Molteni&C's New York flagship runs to more than 12,500 square feet across two levels at 160 Madison Avenue, joined by a walnut stair. Vincent Van Duysen, the company's creative director, designed the interior, and what he did to the building is legible in the room: travertine portals cut into the plan, the original ceiling heights left alone.

The floor is laid out as settings rather than as a catalogue. Kitchen, living and bedroom rooms carry the current collections next to the Heritage line, which is where the Gio Ponti production sits. Rodolfo Dordoni's work is here, along with the Augusto sofa, the Aster and Fonte tables, the Ratio kitchen and the Hector Night wardrobe systems.

Seeing Heritage and current work in the same room is the reason to make the trip. The Ponti pieces are narrower and lighter than the photographs suggest, and standing one next to a current sofa settles in a second how much floor each actually takes.

Molteni&C publishes no opening hours for the store. It gives a telephone number and invites visitors to schedule an appointment, so call or book before travelling.

Hector Night and Ratio are both planned to the millimetre against a wall, and the showroom is where carcass depths and door swings stop being a specification line and become numbers. Bring the room dimensions and the position of every service to the first visit, because the systems are what the rest of the scheme has to clear.