Originally Published: 2006-12-31

Followers of Italian design are familiar with the big manufacturing names such as B&B Italia, Cassina, and Kartell, but many believe it is the many small and medium-sized furniture companies that form the backbone of the Italian sector due to those companies' particular attention to materials and new product development. As design legend Gaetano Pesce has noted, "The owners of (smaller) companies fuel the progress of design through research, experimentation, and the use of new materials."
One such company is Pordenone-based Horm, specialists in wood furniture. The small manufacturer created an industry buzz when it enlisted the talents of acclaimed Japanese architect Toyo Ito. The collaboration yielded designs such as the Ripples bench, a striking limited edition consisting of five woods: beech, cherry, mahogany, oak and walnut. The Italian company, established in 1989, also sources talent closer to home. The Rome design studio Gruppo Grafite (Laura De Lorenzo, Luca Leonori and Stefano Stefani) conceived Horm's elegant Astor table, which features alternating strips of aluminum and wood on its distinctive tabletop. Most recently, Horm collaborated with leading American architect Steven Holl, who Time magazine once cited for buildings "that satisfy the spirit as well as the eye." For Horm, Holl designed the intricately-patterned Riddled table.
Another young Pordenone area furniture company is Kristalia. Founded in 1994, the manufacturer produces contemporary designs such as the Boum stacking chair, designed by Monica Graffeo and Ruggero Magrini. Boum's organic shape is a combination of a polypropylene seat and back with a choice of an aluminum or steel frame. A round cut-out handle in the chair's back adds a whimsical element. Boum earned top honours for its designers in a young designer competition at the Milan furniture fair.
Joe Colombo's classic designs of the 1960s have a new lease on life thanks to Vicenza furniture manufacturer B-Line. The seven year old firm has marketing rights to Colombo's original designs, which were considered far out even in the Swinging Sixties. B-Line's Colombo line includes the Italian designer's famous Boby all-purpose plastic trolley, an industrial design icon honoured in the permanent collections of both the Milan Triennale and New York's Museum of Modern Art.

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