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28 Posti restaurant  

2013




Client: Liveinslums - 28 POSTI 
Interior and furniture design: Francesco Faccin


The project is a small-scale restaurant—28 seats—located in a quiet street in the Navigli area of Milan. Its dimension defines an intimate condition, where spatial and social relationships are closely intertwined.

Commissioned by Liveinslums, a Milan-based NGO, the project is conceived as a collaborative system involving the Bollate prison and its inmates from the earliest stages. The restaurant is not only a space of consumption, but the result of a production chain that integrates design, construction, and social reintegration.

The architectural intervention restores the original space while introducing new furniture elements developed and produced with the prison workshops, using reclaimed materials. Design here operates as a mediator between existing structures, available resources, and human skills.

The kitchen becomes the central device of the project. Visible through a narrow opening upon entering, it establishes a direct relationship between preparation and consumption, making the process partially accessible and perceptible.

Construction was carried out with the involvement of inmates from the Bollate Penitentiary Institute, working on site through the provisions of Article 21. The building process itself becomes part of the project’s meaning, extending its impact beyond the physical space.

Since its opening in 2013, the restaurant has continued to function as a platform for professional reintegration. In parallel, the carpentry workshop initiated a series of collaborations with designers, leading to the development of Bolle Bollate, a collection of objects designed for the inmates’ cells.









Lighting by Petlamp


Making of 
Prison wood workshop








More about on:
Dezeen
Gessato
Thevanderlust

Bollate LAB: Liveinslums + Francesco Faccin

Progetto interior e arredi 28 POSTI: Francesco Faccin

  • Progetto architettonico 28 POSTI: Gaetano Berni e Maria Luisa Daglia
  • Grafica e identità visiva 28 POSTI: Claude Marzotto
  • Coordinamento falegnameria: Giuseppe Filippini (ebanista) - Nino Salvatore(falegname)
  • Progetto Bolle-Bollate: Gaetano Berni - Valentina Ciuffi - Silvia Orazi - Anita Silva
  •  Designer: Cini Boeri - Riccardo Dalisi - Riccardo Blumer - Giorgia Zaanellato - Daniele Bortotto
  • Collaboratori: Veronica Vecchi - Maria Luisa Daglia - Ilaria Bacciocchi - Ivan Cosentino
  • Grafica e identità visiva: Valentina Ciuffi - Anita SilvaContributo
  • Fotografi: Antonio Ottomanelli - Filippo Romano - Francesco Giusti