THE #4 DESIGN

TRANSFORMATIONS THROUGH DESIGN: THE 2000s.

This is the article that tells the latest of the most incisive style changes in terms of design that the Kinki has implemented to always remain up to date throughout its history.

Having passed a few decades and many fashions, it is inevitable that the story is a bit long. To be concise enough, we have told and documented only the most radical ones, but in reality, almost every year we made adjustments and improvements that were also quite impactful.

In this article we describe 2 different refurbishments, both carried out in the period from about 2000 to 2010. In fact, since 2011 the restaurant has been repainted with black and white stripes and will remain so until closing.

They are very different; the first Urban Graffiti and the second very clean but with clear shapes that stand out and delimit.

The Urban Graffiti-style set-up was created by the well-known writer Dado, born Alessandro Ferri, from Bologna but who has become a point of reference among writers in Italy.

The work that is done is radical, every wall of the venue is covered in huge murals, including the entrance staircase which looked exactly like the entrance to an abandoned New York subway stop in the Bronx.

Unfortunately we don't have photos of the whole place, which is very, strange but that's it.

In these, however, we clearly see the importance of Dado's work and the wonderful colors used for each different area of the club.

Kinki is traditionally linked to large works of paintings and graffiti on walls. Francesca Alinovi, the art critic who cleared the world of graffiti and New York writers in Italy in the 1980s, also dealt with it in an article for the important design magazine Domus that you find here The #1 Design.

A piece that was created together with this setting and that remained until the closing is this large panel that was originally red and which represented a belt buckle in full 80s rapper style.

The peculiarity of this piece is that it was also built with wooden planks recovered from the church of San Petronio which is practically the Cathedral of Bologna.

The anecdote is that, in the middle of August, the artist and his partner who assisted him in this renovation, found themselves without material to complete it. The large rectangle had to maintain the characteristic of lightness unaltered, since it would have been hung on the wall, but also of solidity. The girl, Stefy, had her father who was guardian of the church, so after searching everywhere, she turned to him who gave her some pieces of wood that were used perfectly.

Over time, we made it from red to white because the walls were painted black and therefore it stood out better. It has always remained in its original position and we still jealously keep it today.

The next set up was done around 2010 and it was the last one before the now iconic black and white stripes that were photographed from 2012 to 2022.

The reinterpretation was entrusted to a young creative from Bologna, and it was noted above all for the clear-cut shapes that stood out in a rather minimal context.

White walls, a private room bordered by silver spheres of various diameters held by steel cables fixed to the floor and ceiling, a bar in the shape of a gigantic crescent among the most important things.

And the spheres are precisely the concept that we find taken up in New York in the breathtaking panoramic room of the new Summit-One Vanderbilt skyscraper inaugurated in September 2020.

It cannot be denied that the effect is very reminiscent of the Kinki private room, don't you think? Not as identical as the setting taken up by Dior in the article The #3 design, but the scenographic effect obtained is very similar even if in this case we are dealing with floating and therefore mobile spheres.

Here, these are the most representative of the "dresses" worn by the Club throughout its long history. It was the "home" of many generations of young people real clubbers who with their energy have pushed him to always be at the forefront.

Local photo owned by Kinki Club

Photo of One Vanderbilt internet source various authors