Seven futuristic laboratories, specifically dedicated to innovation in technology, acoustics, new materials and advanced prototyping. The Caimi Brevetti Open Labs are a unique space of its kind, a tailor-made project, born from the company’s experience in the field of acoustics and made available free of charge to universities and research institutions aimed at the psychophysical well-being of the human person.

“OpenLabs is born in Nova Milanese, in the same place where Caimi Brevetti was founded. We could have created it and built it elsewhere, but we wanted it to start again from here, just when the third Caimi generation enters the company”, said Lorenzo Caimi.

“If we wanted to grow we had to invest in these laboratories. All our products derive from research and the Open Lab is the sum of all this”, continues Lorenzo Caimi. “We invented a sector that was not there: the sound-absorbing sector with lighter, less heavy and” medical “materials than before. We invented Snowsound. Once the technology was created, we called in a number of designers to see how they interpreted this product. But we didn’t stop at the panel. We tried to do something more and more subtle and we got to fabrics”.

“There was a substantial dogma in acoustics: the more material I use, the more efficient it is. We have understood, however, that the better we become, the less material we have to use”, adds his brother Franco Caimi.

These are the ideas that convinced Caimi Brevetti to create the Open Lab. At the core of the project there are the two innovative acoustic chambers of a total weight of 270 tons with 270 tons and float on multiple layers of special sand with differing densities.
Furthermore, cutting edge instruments and equipment allow a flexible and multiple use of spaces to develop new designs, products and materials.

The two acoustic chambers have opposite characteristics. SuperNova Lab is an acoustically (99.9%) and electromagnetically insulated room (Tempest level shielding), made up of 1301 sound-absorbing wedges, elaborated in 18 different shapes. A room in which the vacuum condition can also be created and which has the function of investigating human perceptual abilities in a controlled environment.

Rev Lab, on the other hand, is a reverberation room dedicated to the study of sound-absorbing materials, capable of reproducing the reverberation of a large cathedral thanks to the asymmetrical walls. A chamber capable of simultaneously performing 24 acoustic measurements, which can be put in communication with the SuperNova Lab for an analysis of the behaviour of the materials.

Furthermore, other rooms complete the Open Labs: the Micromax Lab, for the study of the internal microstructures of materials, equipped with microscopes and specific equipment for structural, visual and acoustic analysis and control; the Habitat Lab, for the analysis of the sound field in the real environment; the underground Hypogeum Lab for the most severe stress tests on materials; the Design Lab for the development of models and prototypes; and the Hub Lab, the connection and control room that regulates the flow of information and data from the various laboratories.

The peculiarity of the Caimi Brevetti’s project is also the social purpose.

“50% of the time spent using the Open Lab will be made available free of charge to universities and research centers“, explains Franco Caimi. “Working with the university is an interchange: they find a unique environment, which we have created by putting together the best of what we have seen in recent years. They, on the other hand, will bring us something we still don’t know “.

The Open Labs are part of the broader corporate reorganization project which includes two other divisions: Interiors for furnishing systems, complements and accessories aimed in a versatile and transversal way both for the office, for the contract and for the home; and Snowsound, dedicated entirely to sound absorption and to all the problems of noise pollution in environments.

With this in mind, a new look was also conceived for corporate communication with the new website, with more information and easier navigation, and the new company logo.

Text by Gabriele Masi.