When it was founded, Maxalto was given a name that was both grandiose and rooted in its creative process, because it is taken from the Venetian dialect ‘massa alto’, meaning ‘the highest’. With this, the company immediately announced its identity: high-end excellence, using a timeless, international language, but also an authentic local dialect that is innately artisanal, accustomed to saying very little whilst doing a lot, in a less verbal form of communication that is instead left to the movements of expert hands.
In 1975, the Maxalto adventure was born as a result of B&B Italia’s founder Piero Ambrogio Busnelli’s desire to establish a company capable of protecting, championing and keeping alive the traditional artisanal techniques which, for so many years, have passed down human stories and crafted objects of great beauty. As a result, a high-tech, cutting-edge company called B&B Italia – offering foam-padded upholstery that was revolutionising the world of furnishings – decided to join forces with an age-old yet very much present dimension, firmly believing in its future longevity. The Busnelli family dreamt up – and created – timeless pieces, ushering in a journey with Afra and Tobia Scarpa, who designed models brimming with dialogues with the craftsmen behind them. It almost seemed as though, if you put your ear close to the furniture you could still hear the sounds of their work tools and the few crucial utterances of the craftsmen, whispered to those pushing the vision beyond the simple act of production itself.
Even rereading them today, these words are still extremely accurate and pertinent. They speak of techniques and materials, vision and tactility. And of furniture capable of making man feel that he is a part of history, by making high quality part of his everyday life. After this first significant collaboration with Afra and Tobia Scarpa, in 1993 Maxalto opened a new chapter, with Antonio Citterio becoming the sole author.
When Antonio Citterio joined Maxalto, his emphasis was on the DNA of a world of furniture designed for true connoisseurs – furniture to be savoured slowly, deliberately, like a fine bottle of aged brandy. The architect declared that he wanted to conduct research on the bourgeois room and the tastes of the early 1900, initially finding privileged references in the typologies and language of French design between the two wars – such as the imagery of designers like Jean Michel Frank, who softened the sometimes constrictive geometries of Modernism – and, over the years, always new expressions that effectively interpret contemporary aesthetic trends.
Today, the pleasure derived from these complete environments, imbued with serenity expressed in the materials, lines and colours, is enriched by opportunity to work with the end customer to design a portrait in the form of furniture.
Designing a piece together, with the guidance of experts, becomes an expression of true luxury – the luxury of time and care devoted to a project, with a rich dialogue of attentive listening and shared expertise. Because for fifty years, Maxalto furnishings have spoken through the hands of the people who design them, produce them, and will touch them adoringly throughout the lives of their family and perhaps beyond. We like to think that that little piece of wood with an authentic artisanal finish, just as Afra Scarpa dreamed, is now in the hands of people who can appreciate the unparalleled value of unique craftsmanship and objects that can speak volumes without saying a word.
