The idea of designing a new door handle came in response to the needs encountered by the architect Fabrizio Bianchetti in the course of his design work for communities, expressing his awareness of issues of accessibility and Design for All

In developing the Leonardo door handle, informal investigations were conducted by installing the handle on the manufacturers own premises and observing the different behaviour of many individuals. This approach enabled the designer to detect a significant percentage of the more obvious deficiencies in existing products (Rubin 1994).
In actual fact, no specific subjective and objective investigation sessions were organised with individuals of different body size, hand size, with their hands full or with children in their arms etc., nor were other actors in the chain involved, such as assemblers, maintainers, cleaners etc.: this would have produced more reliable and detailed data.

The handle is made of cast aluminium with a surface finish in polished chrome, satin chrome and matt black. It complies with current standards for door handles.
Physicality is the main aspect that should be expected for a mechanical door handle. In this case, the product’s unique, innovative physical appearance offers a choice of two ways to grip it: one horizontal and the other vertical (at a 36° slope).
This kind of full grip (using the whole hand, with or without the thumb) is the one that exerts the greatest force, even when the user’s hand is weak. The vertical portion of the handle is set at an angle that safeguards the user against traumas caused by striking the door jamb (as can happen, for example, with a doorknob) and expresses this with semantic vigour.
The vertical handle can also be operated easily with other parts of the body as well as the hand, such as elbows or legs, especially since it is positioned at an accessible height.