On the official website you define your collection authentic Made in Italy. What distinguishes Made in Italy in the current international scene?
Our Made in Italy is distinguished by 80 of history, by a strong rooting in the territory (the North East of Italy), by an Italian production only, where we have been able to create a network of specialized and competent companies and suppliers. All our history is in Italy, based on a search for tastes, emotions, traditions that have given us international recognition.
In 1980 you reinvented the sofa bed making as functional as beautiful. Is there a furnishing element that will always be more central in the house of the future and which is considered worthy of a similar treatment?
The company was founded in 1936 as a manufacturer of metal bed nets. From the metal nets we then developed the mattress door (ie the folding net) and the subsequent evolution was the sofa bed that we invented and developed. The activity in research and development is done full time in our company, with a team of dedicated people. We are currently concentrating on the search for new metal finishes to be used for the table bases and for our accessories.
Alberto Bonaldo
Bonaldo has always supported the new generations of designers and the collaboration with Alain Gilles, started when the Belgian designer was very young, led to the creation of an icon, the Big Table. How do you choose your designers?
Every year we want to support the historical designers with whom the company has been collaborating for decades, new, young and emerging designers. We are an international company, present worldwide and we are always looking for new ideas, influences, contaminations that come from all over the world. Every year we start a great scouting operation, made of knowledge, research, contacts, competitions, collaborations with universities to find new talents. The new designers represent for Bonaldo an indispensable contribution of energy and vitality.
Big Table by BonaldoBonaldo projects seem to be united by the bold and dynamic combination of materials and finishes. How can you maintain a recognizable identity over time and at the same time renew your spirit and conquer more and more countries, as you recently did with China?
If an idea, a project, a proposal, we think it is interesting (even if apparently over the top, unusual, different from the schemes) we accept it and try to make it happen. This is our spirit of innovation. We like the challenge of creating projects, apparently complex and difficult, that allow us to transform ideas into concrete products.
What mistake would you not do if you could go back?
In the past, sometimes the choice of a product has been influenced by commercial logics, to meet the needs and requirements of a specific market. But some of these products did not convince me, I did not hear them all about Bonaldo products. This is a mistake I do not want to do anymore: I have come to the conclusion that commercial logic must not be the only reason to create a product. I want to create products that are innovative, speak a language consistent with the collection and excite me.
How is your study?
My great passion has always been Le Corbusier's works, for which I have a deep admiration and I consider a revolutionary who with his dreams and his courage led to the creation of works that could only seem to be fantasy. Having said that I could not not put his pieces in my studio: the LC4 armchair and the LC6 table; to these I added some accessories by Gae Aulenti and some Bonaldo products. This environment and this atmosphere help me to concentrate and inspire me in my projects.
Lock armchair and Tectonic side table by BonaldoAn object or furniture that has not yet been produced. Which designer would want to draw it?
I would like a Bonaldo product designed by Jonathan Ive.
Can you give us an anticipation of the Bonaldo project for the 2018 MDW?
For the Salone del Mobile 2018 I am proud to present a new collaboration with a well-known French designer: Fabrice Berrux who designed Panorama, a modular sofa, Stone, an innovative seat and Cabinet di Curiositè, a modular bookcase.
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