Architect, designer and art director. In 1986, he and Nicoletta Canesi founded Lissoni Associati, a multidisciplinary architecture and design firm based in Milan.

This was followed by the opening of the visual communications company Graph.x in 1996 and later by the architecture firms Lissoni Architettura and the New York based Lissoni Inc.. With its multinational staff, the group encompasses all aspects of architecture, interiors and product design, as well as graphics, art direction and corporate identity, extending globally to include hotel, restaurant, residential, corporate, retail and exhibition design. Piero Lissoni is art director for major brands such as Boffi and De Padova and designs collections for internationally renowned names including Alessi, Flos, Glas Italia, Living Divani, Kartell, Kerakoll, Knoll and Porro. He has received an array of international awards, amongst which the Good Design Award, the Red Dot Award and the ADI Compasso d’Oro.

Recently completed architectural projects include the Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam (2012), the Mamilla Hotel in Jerusalem (2009), renovation of the historic Teatro Nazionale in Milan (2009) and the headquarters and production facilities of Kerakoll Design Lab (2014), Matteograssi (2011), Glas Italia (2010) and Living Divani (2007) in Italy.

Soon to be inaugurated are the Oberoi Resort Al Zorah in Ajman, UAE, two towers for the Swire Hotel Group in Shanghai, exclusive waterfront condos and villas for the Miami Beach Ritz-Carlton Residences, twelve hotels across South Korea for the Shilla Stay Hotel brand, the new Roomers Hotel in Baden-Baden, a boutique hotel on the shores of the Italian lakes, a mixed-use development in central Moscow and a luxury townhouse in Chelsea, New York.

Born in 1954, he completed his master’s degree at the University of Tokyo in 1979. After studying at Columbia University as Visiting Scholar, he established Kengo Kuma & Associates 1990. In 2009, he was installed as Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Tokyo.

Among Kuma’s major works are Kirosan Observatory (1995), Water/Glass (1995, received AIA Benedictus Award), Stage in Forest, Noh Stage in the Forest (received 1997 Architectural Institute of Japan Annual Award), Bato-machi Hiroshige Museum (received The Murano Prize). His recent works include Yusuhara Wooden Bridge Museum (2010), Asakusa Culture and Tourism Center (2012), Nagaoka City Hall Aore (2012) and Ginza Kabukiza (2013).

Outside Japan, Besancon Arts and Culture Center, FRAC Marseilles and Aix-en-Provence Conservatoire of Music were completed in 2013. Currently, about 100 projects are going on in Japan, Europe, USA, China and many other Asian countries. Kengo Kuma & Associates are also engaged in the designing of the new national stadium in Japan.

Kuma is also a prolific writer, including Anti-Object, translated into English. Most of his latest titles have been published in English, Chinese and Korean and have won wide readership from around the world.

Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren are the members of the Swedish design group Front. Their works are based on common discussions, explorations and experiments and they are all involved in the projects from initial ideas to the final product. Front’s design objects often communicate a story to the observer about the design process, about the material it is made of or about conventions within the design field. In their work they have assigned part of the making of design to animals, computers or machines. They have made a constantly changing interior, created objects with explosions, robotic furniture and a range of furniture inspired by their fascination with magic.

Founded in 1983 in Sao Paulo by brothers Fernando (born 1961) and Humberto (born 1953) Campana, Estudio Campana became famous for its furniture design and the creation of intriguing objects such as the Vermelha and Favela chairs and has grown to include Interior Design, Architecture, Landscaping, Scenography, Fashion, Artistic Partnerships and more.

The Campanas work incorporates the idea of transformation, reinvention and the integration of craftsmanship in mass production. Giving preciousness to common materials carries not only the creativity in their design but also their very Brazilian characteristics—the colours, the mixtures, the creative chaos, the triumph of simple solutions.

Companies such as Alessi, Artecnica, Baccarat, Bernardaud, Consentino, Corsi Design, Edra, Fendi, Grendene, H. Stern, Lacoste, Louis Vuitton, Moleskine, Nodus, Skitsch, Trousseau, Venini and others produce the ideas created by the team at the studio, which also signs its own line of limited numbered editions and unique pieces often crafted in partnership with artisan communities and NGOs.

These special editions are represented by international galleries including Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Firma Casa, Friedman Benda and Galleria O. Campana pieces are included in the permanent collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the MoMa in New York, the Musée Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in Sao Paulo and also the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.

The brothers were honored with the Designer of the Year award in 2008 by Design Miami and the Designers of the Year Maison & Objet award in 2012. That same year they were selected for the Comité Colbert Prize in Paris, honored at Beijing Design Week, received the Order of Cultural Merit in Brasilia and were awarded the Order of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture in France. In 2013 they were listed among the top 100 most influential Brazilian personalities by Forbes magazine, and in 2014 Wallpaper* ranked them among the top 100 major players in design.

Ettore Sottsass was born in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1917. He received his degree in architecture from the Turin Polytechnic in 1939. In 1947 he opened his own architecture and design office in Milan.

His collaboration with Olivetti began in 1958 and lasted for over thirty years, during which he received three Compasso d’Oro design awards. Among the items he designed for Olivetti are: “Elea”, the first Italian electronic calculator, in 1959; “Tekne 3”, “Praxis 48”, the red portable typewriter “Valentina” and “Sistema 45”.

All throughout the ‘60s and early ‘70s, Sottsass’s work explored the themes that would stand central to his designs in the years to come: it was during this period that he laid the foundations for what would later be called Nuovo Design.

In the second half of the ‘60s, Sottsass starts Pianeta Fresco, magazine co-edited with Allen Ginsberg and Fernanda Pivano and he is involved in the first debates on Radical Architecture, followed, at the beginning of the ‘70s, by several conceptual counter-design works.

In 1980 he founded Sottsass Associati Studio and Memphis.

In 1981 the first Memphis exhibition opens in Milan (shows will follow until 1987). Memphis, gathering internationally known architects and desingers, quickly became the symbol of Nuovo Design and point of reference for all contemporary avant-garde directions.

His works are in the permanent collections of a wide range of museums: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; MOMA, New York; Metropolitan Museum, New York; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Montreal; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; National Museum, Stockholm.

Alpi

ALPI was the first company in the world to industrialise the production process of composite wood.

From a workshop of fine cabinet making the company rapidly evolved into an industrial leader in the production of decorative surfaces. Its story is a vibrant tale of a manufacturing tradition focused on excellence and of the Alpi family, still at the helm of the firm today, through three generations, starting with founder Pietro Alpi in 1919.

The progress from a carpentry workshop to an industrial firm specialising in the production of prefabricated panels and wooden surfaces for the still nascent furniture sector began in the 1950s, with the arrival in the company of Valerio Alpi, son of the founder, and the launching of widespread distribution across the national territory. In 1961 the product ‘ALPIlignum’ was introduced, the first composite veneer and still the brand’s most representative item.

A true revolution made possible by extraordinary technological research and an extensive background in cabinet making, which led to rapid growth on international markets. Elton Group recognized the potential of the product and became the first export customer for ALPIlignum back in the early 1960’s.

ALPI is today, under the leadership of Vittorio Api, a partner of leading brands in the luxury, automotive and nautical sectors, as well as prestigious companies in the fields of furnishings, product design, interior architecture and contract, with projects ranging from hotels to multi-apartment complexes, retail to public spaces.

Applications

Surfaces for furnishings; surfaces and facings for interior architecture; hotels, multi-apartment and residential complexes, shops, retail outlets, offices, public spaces; wood for floors, window and door frames, wall panelling, acoustic panelling; surfaces and facings for the interiors of yachts and cruise ships; dashboard surfaces and interior finishing for automobiles; objects.

Alpi Designer Collections

The profound synergy with the world of design has led, over the years, to prestigious collaborations starting in the 1980s with outstanding names in Italian design, including (among others) Clino Castelli, Aldo Cibic, Dino Gavina, Pierluigi Ghianda, Ugo La Pietra, Piero Lissoni, art director of the firm since 2015, Angelo Mangiarotti, Alessandro Mendini, Matteo Ragni, Ettore Sottsass, Matteo Thun, Marco Zanini.

Working with art director, Pierro Lissoni, ALPI has now launched Designer Collections, created in collaboration with some of the world’s leading designers, creating patterns that cannot be found in nature, with utterly original chromatic effects.

To create these unique wood veneers, Alpi peels, slices and reassembles Poplar, Lime Wood or Ayous, all of rigorously controlled origin, into infinite varieties and decorative effects, through a particular process that peels the log, tones the wood by immersion, then layers the sheets to create a new log. A fascinating production process, where a living material like wood is enhanced thanks to the most innovative technologies and the remarkable cultural heritage of manual skill. The ‘squaring’ of the wood.

Advantages

• Unique designer veneers and inlay work at a fraction of the cost of handmade marquetry
• Environmentally traceable, sustainable and certified
• More suited to modern furniture manufacturing processes saving time and materials
• Highest quality, free from the splits, knots, holes and discolouration found in conventional veneers

ALPIlignum is a decorative multilaminar wood veneer compliant with ISO 18775 standard.

Standard Dimensions

Lengths: 1500, 2200, 2500 or 3150 (- 0/+30 mm)
Widths: 360, 600, 620 or 640 (- 0/+30 mm)

Thickness

0.58mm (nom)

Refer eltongroup.com for individual item dimensions

Wood Density

450-900 kg/m3 (measured in compliance with standard IS9427)

Formaldehyde Emission  

In compliance with E1 (analyzed according to EN 717). On request ALPI can supply ALPIlignum with two levels of formaldehyde emissions below the E1 standard:

BE – ALPIlignum with a formaldehyde emission level equal to a fraction of the E1 standard.

ZeroF – ALPIlignum without added formaldehyde.

It is in any event impossible to guarantee a complete absence of formaldehyde in ALPIlignum wood veneers as formaldehyde is a naturally-occurring substance in wood.

Reaction to Light

ALPIlignum is not a finished product and therefore its resistance to light in part depends on the cycle and chemical nature of the finish. On demand, ALPI can supply a version of ALPIlignum which, if varnished with an appropriate varnishing cycle, can achieve values of > 3 on the grey scale (UNI EN 15187:2007). The buyer is advised that discolouring may occur. It is recommended that the buyer perform advance tests depending upon the particular purpose and intended use in order to optimise results.

Pattern Matching

The Alpi Designer Collections include patterns which require extra care when matching at junctions. Please make the cabinet maker aware of the need for matching and balancing the veneer in your drawings and/or specifications.

Mechanical Specifications

The mechanical characteristics of ALPIlignum depend on the nature of the finish and the type of backing. It is recommended that the buyer perform prior tests depending upon the particular purpose and intended use in order to optimise results.

Colour and Structure

Being a natural wood product, ALPIlignum may vary in its reference colour. It is recommended that before use the buyer check both the colour and grain of the delivered product as against the ordered product.

ALPI stands out for its direct control of the entire supply and production chain, from the log to the finished product. Forestry management by means of the chain of custody guarantees legal and sustainable origin of wood, and total product traceability.
Today the company holds licenses for the management of 500,000 hectares of forest, also ensuring the growth of local communities in terms of economics and infrastructure, thus combining the core business with activities of social and environmental sustainability.

ALPI operates in complete transparency regarding environmental and social responsibility, constantly focusing on excellence in the use of natural resources. Every ALPIlignum is made with Poplar, Lime Wood and Ayous from certified sustainable forests, directly controlled for maximum respect of environmental biodiversity.
Maximum care also goes into safety in the workplace and environmental protection, including an advanced industrial water purification system.

Specification

We have prepared a sample short form specification to help you specify Alpi Designer Collections timber veneer. Please highlight and copy and paste the relevant details into your specification sheet. You can add other clauses as appropriate. *delete as applicable.

Samples

To help with your selection, Alpi Designer Collections items are available in 100mm x 100mm polished samples. The polish used is a high quality acrylic polyurethane in a 5% gloss level. Samples are sent by Australia Post regular mail service. Sample requests received before 2pm will be processed same day.

To order samples click on the desired product and add to sample cart. At the end of your session proceed to sample cart, at the top right hand of your screen, fill in your details and complete your sample order.
If you require A6 raw veneer samples to replenish your catalogue, please contact Elton Group 1300 133 481 or enquire@eltongroup.com

Polished samples supplied by Elton Group are not warranted as representative of the finished article. If your client is happy with the veneer selection, it is important for you to arrange a polished sample of the veneer specified, indicative of the finished product, be provided by the cabinet maker responsible for the project. It is recommended that you also run fabrication tests to determine the potential for colour change in your specific application.