The idea of the sliding door

Santarcangelo di Romagna, 1987.

It all started here. The story of the Scrigno pocket sliding door, the first system
to be patented in Italy, is deeply rooted on state road 9 along Via Emilia, between Rimini and San Marino
and just a stone’s throw from the noble palazzos, alleyways and piazzas of one of the most historical towns in Emilia Romagna.

Giuseppe Berardi (founder of Scrigno sliding doors) was the owner of an anonymous
carpentry, a production firm among one of the many apparently similar production firms
lining the road to Rimini, in Cerasolo di Santarcangelo di Romagna. Doors and windows were
Berardi’s speciality: he was well-known by the locals for just this reason. Thanks to constant
repeat orders, word of mouth among customers and the ability to make products in a professional way with top quality levels,
innovation quickly gave way to repetition. Yet the turning point came with a chance meeting.

On a cold winter’s day, a customer who had just returned from the States came to Berardi with a singular request: he wanted to recreate America in his home in Emilia Romagna.
“Over there in the States”, he explained, “the rooms have doors that slide along the floor and disappear into the walls. They perforate them, they cross them and they delve into them, so they are completely concealed from view.".

The challenge had been set.

Giuseppe did some research, some thinking, devising new solutions. He asked friends and colleagues for advice and feedback: He got the same answer from them all: “It can’t be done. Nobody has ever done it in Italy”. And that was true. The walls in typical U.S. architecture, with their large empty air casings ready to be filled, were miles away from the construction model used in Italy. From North to South, the Belpaese is distinguished by buildings with solid historic walls, made or bricks or stone. Walls that are impossible to penetrate.

The only existing solutions were common doors or sliding doors: “the best solution to optimise space; more pleasing on the eye and even tidier to look at; a wooden frame supports the door and accompanies its sliding action, making it more stable and strengthening it, like a skeleton”. However, nobody knew how to go about achieving the desired result. “I could make a hole in the wall – thought Giuseppe –. Remove the bricks, insert the wooden frame inside it and then…”. The solution came to him by association of ideas. “The wooden frame just wasn’t suitable for the construction techniques typically used in Italy. I had to rethink the skeleton!”. Berardi called the customer. "So? – he asked – Do I get America in Italy?”. “Perhaps not America – the carpenter replied –, but I do have an idea…”. A few days later, for the first time, an Italian sliding door disappeared into a wall, supported and protected by a metal counter frame