Tradition and style, Visual Display for Dorbolò

We’re used to seeing highly refined interior design in cafés, restaurants, hotels, gyms and clothing stores. Receiving customers and guests in a unique space of great visual impact is part of a conscientious communication strategy that aims to thrill, a concept based on visual storytelling which Udine studio Visual Display has been successfully applying for some time, as our readers will be aware. From the restoration of “Il Vitello d’Oro”, Udine’s oldest restaurant, to Mr. Simon, a speak-easy style hidden bar, and Baita Piè Tofana in Cortina d’Ampezzo, to mention only a few of their projects, the team comes up with designs that are always perfect for their context and creates spaces with a unique, captivating atmosphere.
The latest new project by Giorgio di Bernardo and his team is in Cividale del Friuli, a town of Lombard origin which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Dorbolò family has a long tradition of making Gubana, a traditional local cake made of sweet leavened dough layered with a filling of dried fruit and nuts. Proprietors Jessica and Joelle Dorbolò asked Visual Display to create a very special point of sale, a precious showcase for their creations in the historic centre of Cividale del Friuli.
With their grey stone surfaces and glossy brass trim, the designers offer a modern new version of the traditional Mitteleuropean pastry shop, designed like a miniature stage set. The intriguing optical effect of the unusually shaped walls draws the eye of customers and passers-by to the back wall, dominated by the bar counter and the big brass logo. Among the hazelnut-coloured walls are display shelves, storage areas and comfortable little niches furnished with little round tables whose intriguing L-shaped brass legs invite visitors to sit down to enjoy a slice of cake and a cup of coffee.
The pastry-shop offers other traditional sweets in addition to gubana, which is the unrivalled key attraction featured in the big central display cases showing off the pastry shop’s creations in all their splendour, as well as breads, displayed in a corner close to the entrance. The minimalism of the space is mitigated by a rather more sumptuous ceiling with arched substructures, which, with a bit of imagination, could be said to resemble the layers of a sliced gubana cake. The interior design is completed with custom-designed brass and opaline glass lamps.
Visual Display’s Dorbolò La Gubana Boutique is a bakery and pastry shop that goes well beyond the classic point of sale, because whether or not you come to sample the bakery’s products right from the source, the shop offers much more than the joys of the palate. Its balanced, elegant interior design clearly makes it stand out as different from other bakeries even while preserving the aura of tradition typically linked with temples of the culinary arts.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Visual Display
Location: Cividale del Friuli, Italy
Year: 20221
Images: Camilla Bach
Styling: Sara Bertolini