B&B Italia

About

B&B Italia has been a leading company in the field of contemporary furnishings since it’s founding in 1966. B&B Italia headquarter is located in Novedrate in Como province. Offices are situated in the building projected by Renzo Piano in 1972.

The Company’s ability to reflect contemporary culture, to sense and anticipate trends, to respond to changes in taste and living needs, has resulted in a collection of world-famous furnishings, which account for a crucial chapter in the history of Italian design. B&B Italia’s success is based on a matchless alchemy of creativeness, innovation and industrial skills, aimed at producing “timeless” products “lasting through time".

— excerpt from http://www.bebitalia.it

Interview Ideas

Main Ideas / Interview

  • Ain is not make design but industrial design

  • Polyurethane process
  • Keeping models like Up5 (crafsmen aspect - assembly)
  • Comin gup with new concepts that reflect B&B's name
  • Importance ofresearch development and working with designers throughout the process.
    • Important to anticipate the future – this is why the RD department exists, and to also have the department separate from the rest of the company.  They also place their marketing within it.  Because it takes 2.5 years approximately to transform the idea to the showroom
  • Ideas cannot be criticized – projects can
    • Not all ideas have to become projects- can eventually help you later on in the process
  • Larger company – different problems than small companies
    • Protect designs (copies from far east) - sometimes run risk of looking for that luxury in order to prevent this risk best way to face this problem is to have designers manufacturers being more flexible
  • 100 ideas, 50 projects, 20 prototypes, 10 products to the committee, 3-5 products
  • 2-2.5 years from idea to product

Video/Key Quotes

  1. Department Role In Future Productsopen link
  2. Changesopen link

What We Learned

Before visiting we thought it was a large company that has been through many changes and no longer carry their roots or goal of their initial company (bought out by investment firm blah blah) but through the interview I realized that once B&B has surpassed a typical Italian company size (small and mobile) there are new challenges and it’s a whole other field. The contract division and investment groups involvement also has a part to do with globalization, that it is difficult designing a product that can be well received in multiple markets. This puts the company in position to create designs that can protect the designers (copies from the far east) He brought up that B&B’s aim is to not make design but industrial design.

Piero Busnelli’s initial goal was to goal was to “design armchairs that are made like they are on assembly lines, by workers who never seen an armchair made.” The process of development and research is strongly emphasized throughout the factory tour and the interview, and it really shows in the products. Smart system of polyurethane molds, where each mold is equipped with an RFID chip which tells the machine which percentage of mixture (density) and quantity.

Really interesting seeing the polyurethane be created, and how it is practically unnoticeable when seeing the final product. Has great advantage to traditional materials, and also great longevity in the products. The way it’s designed the slipcovers can be swapped, which I thought was pretty efficient. Also having everything in-house (RD, Photoshoots) gives a great benefit as they have everything in one place to quickly make changes or modifications to products. Another interesting aspect was that RD also involves the marketing department, and it is included in the research and development, rather than the “North American” approach of creating something, then marketing it.

Also how they make changes and the time it takes to create a product, with many revisions was good. The explanation of how they go about processing and narrowing down from idea to product was excellent. You would expect that with all the machines and technology that everything would be automated, but there was a great example of having 2 guys upholstering the Up5 chair, which was in itself fascinating. During the interview he also brings up there is a great crisis for young designers, which led to him mentioning about education. Like many of the other interviews the same things are mentioned, like how the Dutch and English schools are producing while Italian schools are lagging behind.

Bringing in designers like Patricia Urquiola for example gives freshness to the company, with a different perspective (woman, Spanish, young (38).

They actually are constantly aiming to produce a product that can be adaptable to different markets. Of course, nothing is perfect, but this process of ideas and narrowing it down is a good example of the Zaha sofa, where they kept didn’t’ want to ‘damage’ the idea of the design. And that’s what the challenge was needed to push the research to develop the material that would make the idea possible.

- Polyurethane
- Importance of releasing series
- Smart system