Loading...

Tag: Luca Nichetto

Artifort

In 2015 Artifort celebrated its 125th anniversary. Each year, our chairs, tables and sofas find their way to the homes of design lovers around the world. It all started in 1890 when Jules Wagemans started a business as an upholsterer in Maastricht.
Artifort stands for furniture that lasts a lifetime. In many cases it passes down through generations. The secret lies in the use of high quality materials and in our skilled employees. The craftsmanship of our upholsterers, welders, woodworkers and seamstresses is at a high level through years of experience and in-house training of our younger employees.
Artifort stands for timeless design. Design that endures. Design that is authoritative. From Pierre Paulin and Geoffrey Harcourt to René Holten and Patrick Norguet. Artifort means top-quality design by top designers.

Artifort includes in its permanent collection many projects by the French designer Pierre Paulin dating back to the 60s and 70s.
Paulin, awarded the highest French honor for the arts and defined by French President Sarkozy as “the man who made design an art”, started working as a freelance designer for Artifort at the beginning of his professional career; this marked the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration, where comfort has always been the constant starting point.
The works of the Paulin-Artifort association can be admired in the most famous museums around the world and continue to be produced as an example of timeless design: the Tongue, Le Chat, Ribbon, Tulip, Mushroom armchairs … are now considered to be cornerstones of design of the ‘900 and sculptures with great comfort.

 

Website

Molteni&C - mobili e design, sedie, divani, tavoli, arredi

Molteni

Molteni & C was founded as a craft company in 1934 in Giussano in the province of Milan (later in the province of Monza and Brianza), by Angelo Molteni, a businessman from Brianza, among the promoters of the Milan International Furniture Fair, which will see its first edition in 1961 In the first post-war period the company made furniture starting from the trunk and covering all the production phases and in the mid-1950s it participated in the first “Selective Exhibition – International Furniture Competition” in Cantù, with a project by the Swiss architect Werner Blaser, a pupil by Alvar Aalto and assistant to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who wins first prize. The chest of drawers, with the triple fork geometric joint, is the first prototype of modern furniture and has recently been reworked in a precious numbered and certified edition.
1968 is the year of the revolution: in a few months, production is converted from classic to modern, to create well-designed furniture, designed for the series; Luca Meda, a pupil of the Ulm School, is the man of the revolution, his Iride containers presented at the Salone del Mobile in 1968. The following year the complete conversion to design furniture took place, followed by the purchase of the Unifor companies and Citterio, in the office sector and, in 1979, of Dada, a kitchen furniture company. Over the years Molteni & C therefore becomes a reality for the production of furniture.
During the artistic direction entrusted to Luca Meda, the architects Aldo Rossi and Afra and Tobia Scarpa are called to design for Molteni; Aldo Rossi will design some now iconic furnishings such as the theater sofa, the weekly Carteggio and the Milano chair, rare examples of the Maestro’s forays into the world of design.
In the 1990s, however, collaboration began with some Italian and international designers, including Jean Nouvel, Foster and Partners, Patricia Urquiola, Rodolfo Dordoni, Hannes Wettstein.
In 1994 Molteni & C received the Compasso d’Oro for Lifetime Achievement. “Among the protagonists of the Italian furniture culture”, says the jury, “he has been able to present an offer of products designed with constant dignity, safe quality and a broad vision of the cultural context”. In the same year Jean Nouvel designed the Fondation Cartier in Paris, Molteni created all the furnishings through Uniforo: thus the Less series was born, an icon of design in the world, tables with minimal thickness and with elementary and rigorous shapes.
In early 2000 To support international expansion, Molteni & C created the Padded division and, in a few years, established itself among the best international manufacturers with the projects of Patricia Urquiola, Ferruccio Laviani, Rodolfo Dordoni, Hannes Wettstein and Ron Gilad and many others.
In 2012 Molteni & C presented the Gio Ponti Collection at the Salone del Mobile, furnishings never mass produced by the great Milanese architect, in collaboration with Gio Ponti Archives. The collaboration between Molteni and Gio Ponti’s heirs continues annually thanks to an exclusive agreement for the rights of the Maestro’s projects.
The Molteni Group recently celebrated 80 years of activity with an exhibition at the Modern Art Gallery in Milan, entitled 80! Molteni. With an installation curated by Jasper Morrison and the graphic project by Studio Cerri & Associati, prototypes and furnishings from all the companies of the Group recount, for the first time, 80 years of experience, quality and innovation. The exhibition has become the core of the Molteni Museum in Giussano.
As of April 2016, Belgian architect and designer Vincent Van Duysen has been appointed creative director of the Molteni & C brands; after the success of the Gliss Master collection of wardrobes, the new collaboration focuses on coordinating the image and the design and artistic choices of the group.
Born as a company specialized in the production of systems, today the company still fully produces in Italy an integral offer for the home, from containers to upholstered items, from chairs to tables … flanked by a contract division that manufactures cruise ships, theaters , museums, hotels, restaurants and collective residences.

Website

Moooi: mobili, interni e illuminazione moderni olandesi

Moooi

For 20 years now, Moooi has inspired and seduced the world of design with sparkling, innovative, ironic and courageous projects.
The Dutch company was founded in 2001 by Marcel Wanders and Casper Vissers initially to propose the projects of Marcel Wanders himself, who in the 90s made himself known to the famous Dutch collective of designers Droog Design mainly thanks to his knitted chair, Knotted Chair, later edited by Cappellini; Wanders’ designs are often too original for design companies, so this publishing house is founded in order to maintain its independence and creativity intact: Moooi which means “beautiful” in Dutch.
Marcel Wanders’ capricious, unique and provocative style is fully expressed in the Moooi collection. In addition to the creations designed by Marcel himself, Moooi also edits other well-known designers such as Bertjan Pot, Jasper Morrison. Ross Lovegrove, Studio Job… enriching the catalog every year with always surprising pieces.
The company does not hesitate to leave the usual and aesthetic paths of design by editing unusual and courageous creations such as the surprising spider-shaped chandelier, composed of a multitude of technical desk lamps and called Dear Ingo in tribute to the Master of light Ingo Maurer , created by Ron Gilad in 2003 or even the “charred” Smoke wooden armchair from 2002 by Maarten Bass, who later became one of the most acclaimed Dutch designers.
In this way, the Moooi collection easily combines a suspension in pressed white paper by the creative couple Studio Job and a life-size black horse wearing a lamp on its head, a project signed by the Swedish studio Front Design and part of a particularly iconic collection completed from a rabbit_lampada and a pig-table.
Many designers are now called to collaborate with the company, always under the artistic direction of Marcel Wanders, now sought after by all the most important international design companies, from Flos to Baccarat, from Cappellini to Alessi; recent collaborations include those with Jaime Hayon, Nika Zuoanc, Joost van Bleiswijk.
Moooi’s style has not changed since the beginning and has remained exclusive, bold, playful … based on the belief that design is a matter of love, irony and joy. They are timeless objects, which possess the uniqueness and character of antiques combined with the freshness of modern times. This merger leads the brand to focus more and more on the production of iconic and spectacular objects.
With this unique and iconic mix of lighting, furniture and accessories, the company creates interior spaces decorated with a variety of inspiration of models and colors to embrace any type of space, domestic and public, and makes people of different ages, cultures fall in love and personality.
This vision of unexpected home always highlights new ideas with a clever touch of magic. Behind the apparent irony and playfulness there are always intelligent projects, the result of continuous reflections on the way of living and living and its continuous changes.

Website