Delponte was given a 68ft Italian yacht as a blank canvas to remodel.
The fully redesigned cabin has one-of-a-kind single-piece features enlarged in the interior to accommodate comfort, functionality, and quality in its details. Delponte reversed the original concept to attain an immersive space-like interior for a 90-foot vessel.
He designed every element, including cabin linings, lighting, trim, floors and door latches, and hinges. He also designed the seats from the ground up.
The projects extend to the flybridge, primary entrance columns, and canopy to the front standard sun pad.
Privacy, comfort, and flexibility were key drivers in customers’ choices. Delponte was challenged to address these needs and look at innovative ways to give customers a feeling of space, all within a highly regulated naval environment, quality, and safety.
The Gate Project
Conceptual Framework
The Gate emerges as an urban catalyst—a singular architectural intervention that transcends conventional boundaries between structure and city, between built form and social fabric. This project operates at the intersection of environmental response and human habitation, creating a new paradigm for urban regeneration through architectural innovation.
Architectural Philosophy
Architecture, in its purest form, serves as humanity's most profound tool for environmental and social transformation. The Gate embodies this principle through its radical reimagining of mixed-use typology, where the building becomes both shelter and statement, infrastructure and inspiration.
Material Expression
The building's dynamic metallic envelope functions as a living surface—a responsive membrane that captures and reflects the ephemeral qualities of weather, season, and time. This climatically reactive skin creates a dialogue between the internal sanctuary and the external urban condition, protecting the crystalline volumes within while engaging in constant conversation with the city's evolving atmosphere.
The outer epidermis shields a collection of precisely calibrated cubic volumes, each optimized for human habitation and productivity. This binary composition—fluid exterior, geometric interior—establishes a tension between the organic and the rational, between response and resolution.
Urban Integration
The project's relationship to its context transcends mere adjacency. Through strategic positioning and programmatic diversity, The Gate creates new patterns of pedestrian movement and social interaction, transforming underutilized urban fabric into a destination of cultural and economic significance.
The building's presence catalyzes neighborhood transformation through careful calibration of scale, materials, and program—establishing itself as both architectural object and urban infrastructure.
Temporal Dimension
Beyond its static presence, The Gate functions as a temporal device, registering the passage of seasons, the quality of light, and the rhythm of daily life through its responsive materiality. The building becomes a chronometer of urban experience, marking time through the subtle variations of its metallic surface and the patterns of inhabitation within.
Sustainable Integration
Environmental stewardship operates not as constraint but as creative catalyst. The project's sustainable systems are seamlessly integrated into its architectural expression, creating a holistic approach where performance and poetry converge in service of both human comfort and planetary responsibility.
The Gate stands as testament to architecture's capacity to simultaneously respond to immediate human needs while projecting a vision of urban futures—a built manifesto for the transformative power of thoughtful design in the contemporary city.
Urushi, the harvested sap. To embody the celebration of ancient techniques and craftsmanship, I designed and made these cups. The cup concept synthesizes the simplicity and tradition of the Japanese technique that dates back to seven thousand years ago. The signature design of Urushi Cups is defined by a single uninterrupted contour that brings simplicity with precision and antiquity with modernity.
With this in mind, I developed a new way to arrange pure (Kozo) fiber, allowing me to create a single piece of a more dynamic form yet structurally sound. The three sap or lacquer (Urushi) is integrated into the process, sealing the fiber and giving the piece the silky, warm finish of this beloved natural material. Appreciation of complexity and craftsmanship makes it possible to combine a contemporary production system with organic materials and traditional techniques to push the limits of design thinking through production.
My immersion in using the traditional technique of Urushi lacquer began in 2012 while I was on a trip to Japan, to later continue during six year residency in thhe country.
The ongoing series of fans began when Delponte received an invitation from the school of art and design in Kyoto. He chose to create a reinterpretation of one of the most iconic Japanese objects. Traditionally, fans have had different uses and inspired other forms of artwork.
During the war, the samurai would follow their commander's fan's signals, like a silent, coded message.
The fan above is painted with a bright and striking sun motif to be easily visible at a distance.
When not in use, display it as an interior design piece
The fan is one of few Japanese handicrafts originating in Japan and not in China, during a period where most technological learning came from the Chinese mainland.
The Cast Iron pot was designed following a series of specifications and task-based on electric and gas stoves for a privet Japanese cast iron company. This pot brings several new qualities and safety features, such as a lighter weight. 2015 Japan. ©2015
On March 11, 2011, a nuclear disaster caused by an earthquake and a tsunami forced the population around the Fukushima Daichi atomic station to evacuate. That morning I received a call asking if I had news from a friend who lived in this area. This event became the starting point that made me think about what could be a good design for a multifunctional rescue device that people could have at home. To address this need, I designed the Capsule, which was tested during my BMJ project as a home and mobile studio for almost three years.
Invited by a collector to design a piece of furniture for their home, I decided to create a sculptural but functional desk that was inspired by the manufacturing process of stamping, giving this desk a distinctive form.
Produced in a limited quantity, hand and machined is made of several wood pieces that can be deconstructed.
Specially designed for OMuller Japan bikes and Japanese quality standards. BMJ is one of several bikes designed for the boutique and a famous Japanese brand. It is a 3Al-2.5V Disc brake road bike and much more. Change the tires and gear, and you have a cyclo-cross race bike that any pro would be happy to ride with our hidden mounts to transform into a gravel touring machine. You’ll experience a new kind of freedom from the first push on the pedals.
This bike is best suited to going long…you’ll find the stiffness necessary for an hour of CX racing, but the BMJ shines on those all-day rides with the compliance that only 3Al-2.5V Titanium gives. ©2015
For those passionate about motorcycles, this all-in-one blow-by filter design improves airflow and gives the boxer-type engine a clean, sleek style. During combustion, high pressure on the top side of the piston pushes combustion gasses, as well as droplets of oil and fuel, past the piston rings and into the crankcase. This mixture is known as “blow-by.”
My extensive travels in Japan inspired the exclusive sculptural shape of the Water Can. I experienced firsthand the Japanese relationship with gardening and nature—combining the distinguished traditional garden goods observed outside the houses with his contemporary design.
The experience brought to life a unique piece of modern existence where functionality lies behind its minimal form. The task was to create a piece that blends in the gardens and houses while not being invasive to the parks or spaces themselves. Instead, show a smooth sculptural silhouette.
Delponte was commissioned to build a stool for children.
Rocky is a modern interpretation of traditional objects such as spin stops and bounce-back inflatables. Simple, like toys with a futuristic accent.
Designed for the Icaro + MullerJapan bikes company, this CARBON FIBER wheelset was built with Japanese standards and innovations for performance-minded cyclists, road racers, and cyclocross.
Originating from a series of drawings, Delponte was looking to create a seating set suiting indoor and outdoor environments. The first set was made with fiberglass and later from aluminum and wood.
The Ucon chair shape rembles shape from aviation and marine industry or a fishtail.
