B&B Italia Furniture
Italian
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.
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Creator: B&B Italia
Dealer: 2M TRADE MICHAL OGOREK
Mid-Century Italian Alanda Sofa by Paolo Piva for B&b Italia / C&b Italia, 1980s
By B&B Italia, Paolo Piva
Located in Radomsko, Województwo łódzkie
Adjustable sofa in good condition, all mechanism work well.
Category
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage B&B Italia Furniture
Materials
Steel
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Paolo Piva, Alanda, Sofa, B&B Italia, 1980s
By Paolo Piva, B&B Italia
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Paolo Piva
Alanda
A rectangular two-seater sofa with mobile headrests and armrests covered with its multicolored original fabric upholstery.
Original edition by B&B Italia.
With B&B Italia label.
Italy.
Circa 1980.
Dimensions
Height : 74 cm With headrests raised : 88 cm
Width : 210 cm With armrests raised : 194 cm
Depth : 106 cm With headrests raised : 86 cm
Height of seat : 42 cm
Literature
Domus 633, November 1982, p.26-29
Domus 634, December 1982, p.22-23
Giuliana Gramigna, Repertorio del design italiano 1950-2000 per l'arredamento domestico, Umberto Allemandi, 2003, p.277
Mario Mastropietro, Rolando Gorla, Un’industria per il design : la ricerca i designers, l’immagine B&B Italia, Edizioni Lybra Immagine, Milano, 1986, p.394-397.
Paolo Piva
Paolo Piva was born in Adria in 1950. He studied architecture at the Venice Istituto Universitario di Architettura under the direction of Carlo Scarpa and Carlo Aymonino.
He practiced architecture and industrial design mainly in Italy and Austria.
In 1990, he became a professor at the Hochschule für Angewande Kunst in Vienna.
He designed factories in Italy, such as in Misinto for B&B Italia, galeries such as Schullin in Vienna for which he was awarded the « Adolf Loos » prize in 1994.
In 1996, he designed book-shops and cafeterias for the Venetian Civic Museums.
The same year, he participated in the 6th International Exhibition of Architecture at the Venice Biennale.
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B&b Italia furniture for sale on 1stDibs.
B&B Italia furniture are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of fabric and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of B&B Italia furniture, although black editions of this piece are particularly popular. We have 329 vintage editions of these items in-stock, while there is 4 modern edition to choose from as well. Many of the original furniture by B&B Italia were created in the mid-century modern style in europe during the 20th century. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider furniture by Mario Bellini, Osvaldo Borsani, and Gianfranco Frattini. Prices for B&B Italia furniture can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $550 and can go as high as $52,300, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $6,530.
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