B&B Italia Furniture
In 1966, Piero Ambrogio Busnelli cofounded C&B Italia, a modern Italian furniture manufacturer, with Cesare Cassina in northern Milan. From the outset, Busnelli and Cassina set about recruiting the most talented modernists in Italy to conceive of creative furnishings manufactured in modern ways. In the early 1970s, the company split, with Cassina founding his own eponymous firm and Busnelli taking leadership of what became B&B Italia.
For decades, Busnelli cultivated relationships with the world’s best design talent, resulting in furniture pieces that remain iconic today — be they Gaetano Pesce’s outwardly curvaceous Up seating (made for C&B, reintroduced by B&B) or tables from industrial designer Paolo Piva, each more sophisticated than the next in their geometrically complex steel-tube bases. B&B Italia earned four prestigious Compasso d’Oro design awards: in 1979 for Mario Bellini’s Le Bambole, in 1984 for the Sisamo wardrobe system by Studio Kairos, in 1987 for Antonio Citterio’s modular Sity sofa and, in 1989, the first award given to a manufacturing company itself.
Other notable names who designed for B&B Italia over the course of its 54-year history include Patricia Urquiola, Naoto Fukasawa, Zaha Hadid, Ettore Sottsass and Vincent Van Duysen, to name a very few. And while these names bring star power to the B&B brand, in many cases, it was B&B Italia who helped usher in their celebrity, fostering a wave of design talent on the world stage.
The company’s forward-thinking vision manifested in its own headquarters, too: In 1972, B&B Italia tapped architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers to design a steel-framed, postmodern-style home for the brand, whose crisscrossing metal exoskeleton is reminiscent of the pair’s Centre Pompidou in Paris, which was built at roughly the same time. Now, B&B Italia manages a contract division and outdoor section as well as its residential arm, and it also controls production for Maxalto, a brand spun out with furniture designs by Antonio Citterio.
At 1stDibs, find a range of vintage B&B Italia furniture — including sofas, cocktail tables and more.
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage B&B Italia Furniture
Steel, Other
2010s Italian B&B Italia Furniture
Fabric
1980s Italian Post-Modern Vintage B&B Italia Furniture
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Post-Modern B&B Italia Furniture
Chrome
Early 2000s Italian Modern B&B Italia Furniture
Wool, Cotton
Early 2000s Italian B&B Italia Furniture
Fabric, Velvet
2010s Italian B&B Italia Furniture
Fabric
1980s Italian Vintage B&B Italia Furniture
Leather
1970s Vintage B&B Italia Furniture
Fabric, Plastic
1980s Italian Vintage B&B Italia Furniture
Leather
1980s Italian Vintage B&B Italia Furniture
Leather
1990s Italian Modern B&B Italia Furniture
Steel, Chrome
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage B&B Italia Furniture
Fabric, Plastic
B&b Italia furniture for sale on 1stDibs.
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