The competition “Di porta in porta” (From door to door), launched in 1997 by the Lualdi Porte company and by the ADI (Italian Association for Industrial Design) was open to students and professionals. Everyone was asked to try to reinvent the door. Raffaele Iannello, then a twenty-two year old design student, won the special prize for students with the project entitled “Di porta in sedia” (From door to chair).

His winning idea consisted of a folding seat inserted in a special door specially designed for the dressing rooms of clothing stores. By pressing a button positioned in the center of the door, at the height of the handle, the seat was lowered from the inside and, at the same time, a message appeared outside, warning that the dressing room was currently occupied. The tables with the renderings illustrating the entire design process were showed in two exhibitions: initially in the one organized at the SAIE fair in Bologna and subsequently in the one held in the Milan headquarters of the ADI, where the award ceremony also took place.

Some images of the project were also published in the magazine Abitare, in the large article dedicated to the competition and its winners.

In the photos below, Raffaele Iannello illustrates the project in the presence of the architect Arturo Dell’Acqua Bellavitis, member of the jury, and receives the award certificate from an ADI delegate and from the architect and designer Anna Castelli Ferrieri, president of the jury.