The House on the Lake, or La Casa sul Lago, by Baxter is meant to be a product catalogue. Yet it is also a poem, a series of photographs; no names, no labels, no prices, only a pure composition of spaces, inside and outside, of a structure with bones of stone, lime, and concrete, the colours of dawn settling slowly on its interiors, and the views of picturesque Lake Como framed by its tall windows.
One of the finest Italian design companies, founded in 1990 by Luigi and Paolo Bestetti, Baxter finds its roots way back in time to a century-old entrepreneurial tradition that flourished on the fertile land of Lake Como. And in this book, photographed by Gianluca Vassallo and Francesco Mannironi, the soul of the company is gently revealed.
The Fany coffee table, Nuvola lamps, Joni desk and bookcase, Barret armchairs, Lazybones Lounge in soft sheepskin, elegant Himani handmade rug, travertine marble top on the Thalatha coffee table, and solid Keramikè ceramic tables leafing through the pages of this book, none of these product names can be found, only a slow discovery of Baxter unravels, as curated in this ancestral family villa on the banks of Lake Como in Italy.
In this excerpt, AD finds a moment to reflect on the subtle beauty of Italian-made design.
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“A House is something we never meet to look for its eyes, wherever they might be hiding, to find its heart, almost always hidden inside drawers that are protected by bed sheets, to keep them intact and to prevent heart from running away.”
“A house is something you meet to get in contact with all those people who have in it and made it a home, in order to offer a volume to the new awareness that will be added to the previous ones, a proper space for joy, yet able to embrace pain.”
“Last, It is a place where to find yourself alive, outside the outer world, in a one we have imagined, wished and made to our image and likeness: because, once we are going to be somewhere else to meet our next home and to toast to life with the wine someone will have left there to wait for us, we will be the world someone will meet, the eyes someone will look for, the heart inside that drawer, the laughs on the sofa, this is what the La Casa sul Lago has been to me.”
“To look for the signs of its story within a completely new one that is starting today for her. The story that Baxter would like you to meet here, on Como Lake, or within these pages, wherever you might be reading them.”
Words by Gianluca Vassallo (translated from Italian)
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