Tag Archives: alessi

Alessi Just Built an Espresso Maker Shaped Like a Screw

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The trash or scrapyard is probably the last place you would look for inspiration when trying to come up with a design for food or drink-related products. But apparently, the new Vite espresso maker from Alessi did just that. Designer Philippe Malouin used his Scrapyard Works process to develop the concept for this coffee maker, drawing inspiration from an unexpected item: the screw. In fact, this approach is completely unprecedented in the history of Alessi, making the Vite one of the most conceptually bold things the brand has released in years.

Vite literally means “screw” in Italian, and the coffee maker looks exactly like what it’s named after. It is apparently what caught Malouin’s attention as he sifted through metal fragments, pieces that could be brought to new life through recomposition and reinterpretation. What you get is a coffee maker with a distinct industrial feel that can still deliver one of the best cups of fresh espresso you can get from a stovetop brewer.

Designer: Philippe Malouin

London-based industrial designer Philippe Malouin is no stranger to turning bold concepts into beautifully functional objects. Born in Laval in 1982, he founded his studio in 2008 and has since built a reputation for work spanning furniture, lighting, objects, and installations. He has taught at prestigious institutions like the Royal College of Art in London and ECAL in Lausanne, earning international recognition through awards from Wallpaper*, Archiproducts, and Dezeen. With the Vite, he brings that same thoughtful, concept-driven approach to your morning coffee ritual, and honestly, your kitchen counter will never look the same.

The Vite is made from die-cast aluminum, which gives your espresso a rich, rounded, full-bodied flavor. That choice of material is not just aesthetic, as aluminum has long been favored in traditional Italian coffee making for exactly this reason. The boiler is shaped to echo the form of a screw, a nod not only to the name but also to the physical gesture of twisting or screwing the two halves of the device together to brew your perfect cup. It’s a rare case where the name, the form, and the function all tell exactly the same story.

The small flared base of the boiler mirrors the head of a screw, keeping the theme consistent from top to bottom. This section is crafted from thermoplastic resin, and the color variants were actually sampled directly from the machinery and tools inside the Alessi workshop, meaning what sits on your stovetop is literally a piece of Alessi’s factory floor translated into design. Available shades include Sage Green and Brown, among other workshop-inspired options. It’s a small detail, but it’s exactly the kind of thoughtful decision that Alessi collectors tend to fall in love with. If you’d prefer a cleaner, more minimalist look, there’s also an exclusive natural aluminum version available only on alessi.com and in select Alessi stores.

Beyond its striking looks, the Vite is impressively practical. It brews three cups of espresso at a time and is compatible with all types of cooktops, including induction. That’s a major win for anyone who has had to retire a beloved moka pot simply because of a kitchen upgrade. At just 17 cm tall and 10 cm in diameter, it’s compact enough to tuck away but distinctive enough that you’ll probably want to leave it on permanent display.

And that’s really what sets the Vite apart in a crowded market of coffee makers: it’s as much a collectible as it is an appliance. Alessi has always walked the line between industrial design and art, and the Vite is a near-perfect example of that philosophy in action. Whether you’re a design collector, a devoted espresso lover, or simply someone who believes your kitchen deserves beautiful things, this screw-shaped little brewer is worth every bit of the attention it’s getting. Sometimes, the best ideas really do come from the scrapyard, and this one just happens to make a really great cup of coffee too.

The post Alessi Just Built an Espresso Maker Shaped Like a Screw first appeared on Yanko Design.

Alessi Just Made a Moka Pot That Looks Like a Giant Screw

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If you’ve ever watched someone twist the top half of a moka pot onto its base, you already understand the Vite. You just didn’t know it yet. That twisting motion, the one you do without thinking every morning, the mechanical ritual of threading metal against metal until it locks into place: that’s the entire design concept, made physical. Philippe Malouin took the gesture and turned it into the object itself, which is the kind of move that seems so simple you wonder why it took this long for someone to try it.

Alessi has just unveiled its latest moka pot, designed by Anglo-Canadian designer Philippe Malouin, and the concept is so obvious in hindsight that it’s almost frustrating nobody did it sooner. The pot is shaped like a screw. The boiler, which is the bottom chamber you fill with water, is wrapped in a pronounced helical thread that mirrors the exact twisting gesture you use to seal the two halves together. Form literally follows function, except here the form is the function, made visible and tactile and almost theatrical.

Designer: Philippe Malouin for Alessi

What makes the design work is how committed it is to the concept. Malouin didn’t soften the industrial reference or add decorative elements to make it friendlier. The thread is deep and aggressive, giving the aluminum body a tactile grip that feels engineered rather than styled. The upper chamber sits on top like a bolt head, clean and geometric, while a tapered pedestal at the base anchors the whole composition. That pedestal isn’t just aesthetic, it’s functional, designed to work on both gas flames and induction cooktops. Every element serves the central idea without compromise.

The construction is straightforward in the way good tools are straightforward. The helical form creates natural contours that make the pot easier to hold and twist, which means the design logic actually improves usability rather than sacrificing it for concept. The thread grooves catch light in a way that makes the object more visually dynamic depending on the angle, and the repetition of the spiral gives it a kinetic quality even when it’s sitting still on a counter.

Malouin has described his research process as drawing from “scrapyard works,” recovering discarded metal parts and recombining them into something new. That approach is visible here. The Vite looks like it was pulled from a bin of machine components and repurposed, which gives it an honesty that a lot of contemporary design lacks. It doesn’t try to hide what it is or smooth over its mechanical origins. The aluminum stays raw and utilitarian, the proportions stay true to hardware logic, and the result is something that feels more like a precision instrument than a kitchen accessory.

The name reinforces the concept. “Vite” is Italian for screw, but it also means “quickly” or “fast,” which layers in a reference to espresso culture and the speed of the brewing ritual. Whether that double meaning was intentional or accidental, it works. Good design tends to accumulate meaning like that, where the formal decisions align with the cultural context in ways that feel inevitable once you notice them.

What I find most compelling is how the design makes you pay attention to something you normally ignore. Every time you screw a moka pot shut, you’re performing the exact motion the Vite is built around, but the traditional design doesn’t acknowledge it. Malouin’s version does. It takes an unconscious gesture and makes it conscious, turns routine into ritual, and does it without adding complexity or decoration. The form just clarifies what was always there.

That clarity is what separates this from novelty design. The screw isn’t a gimmick. It’s the logic of the object, made legible. The thread pattern serves the function, the industrial aesthetic serves the origin, and the overall composition serves the experience of using it. Everything aligns, which is harder to achieve than it looks.

The post Alessi Just Made a Moka Pot That Looks Like a Giant Screw first appeared on Yanko Design.