Past and Future

No one can change the past. Except, perhaps, a designer.

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 10/1/2011 5:19:00 PM

No one can change the past. Except, perhaps, a designer. Boffi unveiled the Xila kitchen by Luigi Massoni in 1972. Modular-minded before its time, the system is still famous as one of the first to be entirely devoid of knobs and handles. Now, nearly 40 years on, he has revisited Xila to make it more palatable to today's tastes in size and character.

Xila ST continues to eschew hardware. However, Massoni limited the size options­ for the collection's three modules to simplify the specification process. The melamine-treated particleboard cases of the base, wall, and tall units are framed in aluminum, brushed or varnished matte white. Doors and front panels come in polished white methacrylate, gray-stained oak veneer, or the full range of Boffi colors of textured paint. For counters, select high-pressure plastic laminate, matte-satin stainless steel, Silestone quartz, or Corian solid-surfacing. 39-0362-5341; boffi.com.