MON is inspired by history and technology blended, transforming a traditional wood surface into a dynamic sensory experience.
At Milan’s Salone del Mobile 2026, Zuccon International Project and Cadorin are presenting MON, a new wood cladding system that explores the boundaries between surface, perception and space. The project they will showcase at the Cadorin stand during Design Week is a collaborative effort combining creative design and master craftsmanship.
MON springs from the desire to transform a surface into an experience, using laser engraving technology as a precision tool to enhance our perception of it, based on a rigorous modular geometric system. The result is a wood surface with a new perceptual dimension, one that remains two-dimensional while suggesting depth and conjuring up a spatial presence beyond matter.
The project takes its name from the Japanese ideogram 門 (Mon), which translates as ‘gate’, ‘threshold’ or ‘passage’, and has a graphical form that in itself represents the archetypal architectural threshold—a gateway leading into another space. This motif becomes the project’s generative principle, the symbolic device from which the formal language of the cladding emerges, creating illusions of perspective and plays of light.
The result of synergy between the design vision of Zuccon International Project and Cadorin’s manufacturing expertise, MON transcends the purely decorative and positions itself as a genuine sensory experience. Laser engravings, combined with variations of rhythm and depth, produce a pattern that works through subtraction and allusion, creating plays of light and shade which suggest an apparent three-dimensionality, leaving it up to the viewer’s gaze to complete the space.
The cultural reference is to traditional Japanese architecture, where doors and screens don’t create clear divisions but introduce transitions between different spaces. From this perspective, MON becomes a symbolic threshold, prioritising transition over closure and suggesting depth while remaining rooted in the materiality of wood.
Bernardo Zuccon, Zuccon International Project: “MON is driven by the desire to transcend the idea that surfaces are passive elements. It captures the gaze, suggests depth and introduces an intermediate dimension, where the boundaries of two-dimensionality disappear and space is not defined but open to continuous interpretation”.
Rita Cadorin, Cadorin Group: “This collaboration with a high-profile design studio confirms itself as a privileged field of research, where the pleasure of developing new collections is expressed through an evolved and deeply shared design dialogue. At the heart of the project lies a reflection that connects material with identity: wood, enhanced in its most tangible dimension, is reinterpreted through design, becoming the vehicle for research that combines aesthetic sensitivity and innovation. The result is a design vision in which textures created through laser engraving and compositional lines intertwine in a dynamic and sophisticated way”.
The Salone del Mobile 2026 will be an opportunity to discover MON in Hall 18, Stand D01, within the Cadorin exhibition space, where the project will be presented as an installation staging the relationship between material, light and space. An experience that invites visitors to cross – even if only with their gaze – the threshold between reality and imagination.
