Outpump’s Italian social club with LAVA ping-pong tables
Outpump restyles Spazio-Verso into a modern social club with porcelain ping-pong tables by LAVA and Gio Tirotto’s chairs shaped like beer pong cups. For a few days during Milan Design Week 2025, the culture magazine hosted Circolo Outpump in the venue, inspired by the Italian traditions and social clubs called ‘circoli.’ Once an empty, three-floored space, Outpump injects the nation’s culture with retro charm and modern flair into the venue. The mustard carpet cloaks the entire flooring, extending around the benches on the side of the room. Then, Outpump plants the two LAVA ping-pong tables on the ground floor, where visitors can freely use the rackets and play.
In the basement, Outpump transforms the space into a modern pub. There are four tables, a series of Gio Tirotto’s chairs shaped like beer pong cups, and custom card decks designed just for the event. Here, visitors can play the card game briscola, another beloved Italian tradition. Leonardo Brini, Outpump and the project’s creative director, tells designboom in an interview that Italian social clubs, or circoli, are ingrained into the country’s culture. ‘They seemed to have disappeared, but lately, people around us have been trying to rediscover them. On top of that, some games — like ping pong and cards — are true symbols of the Italian summer. They’re things everyone has done at least once in their life, and they still carry that nostalgic, family-oriented vibe,’ he shares.
all images courtesy of Outpump
interiors with Gio Tirotto’s chairs shaped like beer pong cups
Leonardo Brini has a clear idea of the kind of space he and his team want to create for Circolo Outpump. ‘Some elements we associated with the classic circoli – first and foremost wood – absolutely had to be there. Others, like the color palette or the choice to add carpeting, were instead our own aesthetic reinterpretation. It’s a way to make the circolo feel more pleasant and modern. At the same time, we’re doing it without completely stripping it of its identity or turning it into something too bourgeois or high fashion,’ the creative director explains to designboom. In fact, the space doesn’t feel like an exhibition, much like the other presentations during Milan Design Week 2025.
Interaction is encouraged, starting with Outpump placing LAVA’s ping-pong tables at the forefront of the venue. There are two variations of these design pieces: one with a marbled porcelain surface and another with the culture magazine’s logo imprinted on the aluminum-like top. Two half-cylinders shape the legs of the former, while a twisted sculpture keeps the latter on its toes. These LAVA objects that Outpump uses are part of the company’s Partitina series, a collection of customizable ping-pong tables with bold colors and porcelain surfaces. Along with them come Gio Tirotto’s Ettore chairs, which recall the shape of beer pong cups. Stackable and compact, their vibrant colors and cup design make them portable and versatile enough to suit any spaces.
Outpump designs a social club with LAVA’s porcelain ping-pong tables
Interactive presentation during milan design week 2025
There’s a reason that Outpump designs its event as interactive. Leonardo Brini says LAVA’s ping-pong tables and Gio Tirotto’s Ettore chairs play crucial parts in the experiential presentation. ‘Giving people the chance to interact with them directly proved something: even visitors who might not have been very into design left the space, often after hours, with a desire to learn more and, without a doubt, with a much stronger impression than any traditional exhibition or showroom they visited during Milan Design Week 2025,’ the creative director says. During Outpump’s opening, people flood in, queuing for the variety of beer offered at the bar adjacent to the LAVA ping-pong tables.
Once they have their drink in hand, some of them head to pick up the racket and play, while others stand and talk or walk downstairs to check the second part of the exhibition. Downstairs, visitors sit on Gio Tirotto’s Ettore chairs, chatting as they play the custom decks designed by Outpump. Round mirrors encased in steel multiply the breadth of the space, and in the corner, a reflective steel cube houses the bathroom, as if it formed part of the overall presentation. On the upper floor, the DJ plays his tracks, the sound reverberating across the transformed venue. No one is static; everyone is moving, interacting, engaging with objects, spaces, people. In the words of Leonardo Brini, ‘this is a story about design, just told differently.’
at the event, there’s a custom LAVA ping-pong table imprinted with Outpump’s logo
as seen, one of the custom LAVA ping-pong tables at Circolo Outpump has a ‘twisted sculpture’ under
visitors can pick up the available rackets and play
the venue’s design evidently modernizes the traditional Italian social club, or circolo
