Martina Guandalini
Azimut, Simone Desirò

Martina Guandalini is an architect, designer and musician. After graduating from Milan Polytechnic in 2012, she moved to New York and started to work at the Sergio Mannino Studio, where she is now creative director. In 2020 she launched her first collection of collectible designs, Soulmate, and obtained the NYCxDESIGN Honoree for Best Emerging Designer: ‘sculptural pieces, markedly pop and bold, born from the heart’. In parallel to her design work, Martina is a singer-songwriter and performer. This allows her to have a highly personal and instinctive vision and to express herself fully. In those same years she started to carry out activities of promotion gender and women’s issues through her band Roipnol Witch. She is still sensitive to the theme and since 2019 has been a member of the Female Design Council of NY. In September 2021 she launched her collection Infinity Table.

Simone Desirò, from Biella, began work in his father’s decoration firm. In 2004, he started to focus on the artificial marble of Rima, an exquisite technique for the working of scagliola developed around 1800 and refined for use in the reproduction of fine marbles in a hyperrealistic manner. Today Simone works with designers and galleries to preserve and reconceptualise the technique. Azimut, a company founded by Annalisa Lago and Francesco Benedini, is a wholly Italian manufacturer where artisan know-how, innovation and design have been working together for over twenty years in a continual quest for excellence. Experimentation with the chemical composition of resins has allowed the company to develop great expertise in techniques and production.