During this year's Milan Design Week, visitors were able to stop by a pop-up American-style diner to enjoy diner dishes that you would normally find stateside. The installation, designed by Rockwell Group in collaboration with Surface Magazine and design consultancy 2×4, is a vibrant and gorgeous salute to all the traditional eateries you would find in the United States.
David Rockwell of the Rockwell Group, discussed the intention to combine the four different types of American diners: the roadside diner, East Coast luncheonette, Midwest Diner and the West Coast Diner. He remarked: "Diners are uniquely American and enduring in our cultural iconography. Our goal is to capture the restaurant's inherently optimistic and democratic spirit that draws people of all backgrounds to create a welcoming lively engaging and fun environment."
The diner is divided up through the utilization of colour, where the front area prominently features shades of grey with metallic accents, the middle section (separated with a curtain) provides a fun and brilliant pop of bright pink, eventually opening up to the back of the diner, which offers a lovely, vivacious tropical aesthetic. The journey from the front of the diner to the back acts as an architectural road trip, introducing guests to the classic American road trip through American-style eateries, an integral part of the culture.
Pure + Freeform aluminium panels in Specter and Frozen Titanium were featured throughout the project, and were utilized to bring the Rockwell Group's vision to life. The panels employ Lumiflon FEVE resin, which offer a plethora of benefits.
With its advanced formulation, FEVE-based coatings are designed for durability and longevity. High-exposure surfaces are protected from UV radiation, salt, water and other elemental deterrents that contribute to coating degradation. This property, in combination with the superior color and gloss retention capabilities provided by the Lumiflon-enhanced coating, allow coating systems to remain intact for decades. The durability and longevity of these low VOC coatings also require far less recoating jobs than a non-FEVE coating system, which reduces lifespan costs, making the system cost-efficient and environmentally conscientious. Lumiflon is an ideal coating technology for heavy usage architectural surfaces that are constantly exposed to the elements, as these coating systems remain in excellent condition for decades.
Photos courtesy of Dezeen