While it's said that styles come and go, the midcentury-modern aesthetic has held strong through the years. Collectors still clamor for original pieces at auction, and the influence of the era's trademark sleek silhouettes is ubiquitous in the collections of brands like West Elm and Room & Board. Though the term encompasses a broad spectrum of design movements throughout Europe, many of the best-recognized (and most enduring) forms have come out of Italy. Case in point: B&B Italia. Since its founding in 1966, the company has produced some of the most distinctive furniture in history. Its designer roster—which includes such luminaries as Ettore Sottsass, Gio Ponti, Renzo Piano, Patricia Urquiola, and Zaha Hadid—reads like a Who's Who of the 20th-century design canon. Many pieces, including Gaetano Pesce's playful Up chair, have reached icon status, while others, like Antoni Citterio's Harry sofa, have been routinely copied, quietly embedding themselves in the DNA of furniture design. As B&B Italia celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, the company has launched of a book, an exhibition, and a documentary film. AD caught up with CEO Giorgio Busnelli (son of founder Piero Ambrogio Busnelli) to hear more about the brand's storied past and how the company continues to look forward.
Architectural Digest: How has B&B Italia changed most over the past 50 years?
Giorgio Busnelli: I am proud to say that B&B Italia still relies today on the same principles my father introduced in 1966. He saw a huge opportunity in design, and consequently in new technologies and industrial processes, to reach the highest expression of quality and designers’ creativity, to be exported worldwide—in a moment when classic furniture seemed to be the only possibility. We honor this technical approach by continuing to commit to research and innovation through our internal Research & Development Centre. We also have always had the goal to conquer foreign markets, and today we are a global brand with an export quota of over 80 percent.
AD: How is it that so much of B&B Italia’s furniture can be used in a variety of aesthetic settings?
GB: B&B Italia has always cultivated the ability to reflect contemporary culture, to respond to changes in taste and living needs, sensing and anticipating trends. Our collections are the result of a unique mix of creativity, innovation, industrial know-how, and excellence. Over the years we have tried to keep evolving in order to offer not only distinctive design products, but also to propose a type of international lifestyle, bringing creativity and personality in any home and living ambience, no matter where the home is and no matter which architectural style it has.
AD: What are your personal favorites from B&B Italia?
GB: It is quite hard to decide among a number of successful pieces, as for many reasons several of them represent important chapters of our life. If I go for the longtime bestseller, it would be the Charles sofa, designed in 1997 by Antonio Citterio. It’s a modular seating system which owes its immense international success to its strong design concept, introducing a new living landscape. One of the main features that made Charles a contemporary classic is its use of inverted L-shaped aluminum feet, which accentuate the light and essential design of the system. In terms of timeless design, I would say the Diesis sofa, a modern classic designed in 1979, still looks amazingly contemporary nowadays. The list is obviously longer, as I consider several projects my babies!
AD: What was it that made the company's most recognizable pieces so iconic?
GB: In my opinion, a product can be defined as an icon when it is able to express a universal idea that stands the test of time. An icon falls between a design piece and a piece of art. The fact that people across the world and the years buy or aspire to buy a product confirms that it is an icon. In our collection we have several iconic pieces, but I would mention all three armchairs: the Up5_6 designed by Gaetano Pesce (1969), the Grande Papilio by Naoto Fukasawa (2009), and the more recent Almora by Doshi Levien (2014). They are very different in terms of design, material, and comfort, but they all show a timeless design and a unique mix of creativity and innovation; they represent true design statements.
An excerpt from the documentary B&B Italia. Poetry in the Shape. When Design Meets Industry
AD: Who are some of your favorite designers who have worked with B&B Italia?
GB: This is a difficult question. We work with so many talents, and it is a huge pleasure to work with them. I will say that Antonio Citterio is the one with the highest knowledge of the company. He’s been with us across three generations, working with my father first, and with me and now my son. He has the extraordinary ability to capture living-style changes, even to anticipate them, and has been able to bring brilliant insights on main trends, beyond products. His ability to capture some important signals of the evolution of the company made him, project after project, our key point of reference. I have great esteem for Antonio.
AD: Where do you see the brand in another 50 years?
GB: B&B Italia has been among the very few companies to understand 50 years ago that design could have a future. We have faced the last five decades with consistency and determination, without accepting any compromise. Today I can say that our mission towards research and innovation will guarantee a strong know-how to face the future. B&B Italia is recognized worldwide as a leader in the contemporary furniture field, a key player in the history of Italian design, and an excellent ambassador of Made in Italy. Basically, we want to remain faithful to our values and roots, being innovative, international, and contemporary, and always at the forefront of design with a forward-thinking attitude.
