Banda Studio presents Passeggiata - a new chapter in our design story, born from our enduring love for the Versailles parquet, a motif deeply woven into the DNA of our interiors. We wanted to reinterpret this classic pattern through a more contemporary and refined lens, creating something that feels both rooted and fresh.
To bring this long-standing idea to life, we partnered with Ark One, true experts in the field and masters of British parquet craftsmanship. With their commitment to quality, precision, and timeless materials, they helped transform our vision into reality.
The result is a collection of three new parquet designs - Weave, Diamond, and Inverso - each inspired by ancient stonework and historic flooring uncovered in Italian and French châteaux, palazzos, and villas. Every pattern carries the elegance of the past, reimagined for today with a quieter, more architectural expression.
Diamond
Weave
Inverso
Inspired by the checkerboard stonework found in the halls of Versailles, Diamond captures the elegance and geometry of 17th/18th-century French design. The iconic marble floors of the palace - laid in contrasting black and white squares - served as a foundation for this reimagined pattern. We softened the contrast, translated it into timber, and created a parquet that echoes the regal rhythm of those historic corridors, bringing a sense of grandeur and balance into contemporary spaces.
Weave draws inspiration from the decorative stone tiles of the 1960s, patterns often seen across sunlit terraces, villa landings, and garden paths throughout the Mediterranean. These rhythmic, geometric forms brought a sense of quiet ornament to outdoor spaces. We reinterpreted that mid-century language in timber, preserving its graphic quality and grounding it in natural materiality. The pattern is then framed with a classic Versailles border, a nod to our design heritage, creating a parquet that balances modern rhythm with timeless structure.
Inverso is a study in contrast - a bold reimagining of the traditional Versailles parquet. While the structure begins with the same iconic square, everything else is inverted. We layered contemporary straight planks within each panel, shifting the grain and direction to create a striking rhythm of opposites. It’s the most modern of the three patterns - our way of asking: what would the Versailles parquet look like if it were invented today? Inverso keeps the bones of tradition but turns the language on its head, offering a refined, graphic alternative rooted in heritage yet undeniably current.
Each panel in the Passeggiata collection is an evolution of the one before, a quiet progression through different eras of design. Diamond, Weave, and Inverso each represent a distinct moment in time, yet they speak to one another in a shared language of form, rhythm, and materiality. This is a passeggiata in time a reflective walk through historical references, reinterpreted for today. To honour this concept, we chose to decontextualise the installation entirely, wrapping the space in fabric so that all architectural cues disappear. You’re left suspended not quite knowing where or when you are, allowing the floors to stand alone as timeless designs that resonate across generations. A collection designed to invite you on a PASSEGGIATA through time.