In seeking a starting point for the project, the collaborative team turned to Febal Casa’s strong San Marino roots on Italy’s west coast. At this geographical position, vignettes of water, light, wind, and materials in motion emerged at Riviera Romaniola. Drawing inspiration from these observations of nature at the edge of the Adriatic Sea, ONDA — meaning ‘wave’ in Italian — explores ZHA’s signature fluidity at a small scale.

The ONDA collection comprises two pieces: a sideboard and a kitchen island. The ONDA island merges aesthetic appeal and functionality into a single solution, while the ONDA sideboard is a versatile, sophisticated piece that fits effortlessly into a variety of living spaces. Both pieces feature ZHA-designed glass doors, which evoke the gentle ripple of waves on Riviera Romaniola’s sandy shores.

While it was evident that working with glass would present the strongest interpretation of the design, it was necessary for Febal Casa to experiment with and invent new manufacturing processes for the company — to shape this material selection and achieve a technical translation of ZHA’s 3D modelling into an artisanal product. The result is a collection that marks a new chapter for Febal Casa, merging aesthetic research with cutting-edge production expertise.

Rather than working with a pre-configured mould that imprints the glass surface with an exact replication each time, Febal Casa developed a process where the glass settles over layers of slits and ridges. As it cools, the glass follows the contours of the custom-designed steel structure, realising its final geometry by gravity — making each door unique thanks to this manufacturing process. Bringing to mind the striking precision of Argentine-Italian artist Lucio Fontana’s tagli (slashes), the final form celebrates the natural behaviour of the material while pushing Febal Casa’s craft forward.

The collaboration between ZHA and the Febal Casa team has been crucial to adapting ZHA’s vision and sketches to the industrial production process while preserving the integrity of the design. The partners worked together in an intense, iterative process over the past year to refine the geometries, proportions, and manufacturing techniques that make the design possible.