Marking 100 years of heritage, Schiffini pays tribute to one of its most iconic models: Cina. A lesson in subtraction and architectural purity reinterpreting it with cutting-edge materials and technologies for the contemporary home.
Schiffini, a name that for one hundred years has served as a synonym for the evolution of the Italian kitchen, transforming the domestic hearth from a hidden service utility into the undisputed protagonist of the architectural stage.
This celebration is a dynamic re-assertion of identity: a muscular pivot towards a future defined by hyper-materiality, technological precision, and narrative depth.
At the center of this centenary pivot lies Cina, the masterpiece conceived in 1986 by Vico Magistretti, now resurrected, re-engineered, and re-contextualized under the new creative direction of Marco Costanzi and the industrial aegis of SCIC Italia.
The visual grammar remains rigorously faithful to the original. Rejecting every concession to superimposed decoration, the project entrusts its identity to absolute purity of form and geometric clarity. Exemplary is the resolution of the opening system: no handle interrupts the fronts; instead, a hollowed groove—situated now on the upper part of the doors, now on the lower part of the wall units—traces a sharp shadow, a continuous graphic sign that visual memory associates, even today, with the silhouette of a flute.
The lesson of the Milanese architect endures, above all, in the management of volumes. Rounded, fluid, devoid of aggressive edges, the profile of the door lightens the mass of the cabinetry, effectively denying its gravity. A breaking element, capable thirty years ago of redefining the standards of the high-end interior, remains the steel hood: a technical volume that, far from hiding, claims its sculptural presence, confirming itself as the visual fulcrum of the composition.
Reinterpreted through current materials and technologies, Cina validates Magistretti’s assumption that ‘to be modern means to be part of a chain, with one hand in the future and one in the past.‘ Not a vintage operation, therefore, but the reaffirmation of a method that looks forward.
Industrial Continuity
The guarantor of this renaissance is SCIC Italia. Acquired in 2023, Schiffini enters the orbit of the historic Parma-based manufacturer: established in 1948 and revered as a pillar of the Emilian production district, SCIC brings to the table not merely financial solidity, but nearly eighty years of high-end manufacturing mastery. Far from being a silent partner, the parent company acts as an industrial custodian, preserving the brand’s integrity while projecting its historic values into the contemporary market. The superfluous eliminated, what remains is the essence of the project: technique, aesthetics, and that rare capacity to traverse decades while remaining immobile, yet extraordinarily current.
Creative Direction: Marco Costanzi
Furniture Engineering: R&D SCHIFFINI