Molteni & C is part of that first large group of entrepreneurs from the Brianza, Veneto, Marche and Emilia regions who, starting in the 50s, with the Triennale, the first editions of the Salone del Mobile and the launch of the Compasso d'oro, contributed to profoundly change the way of living and inhabiting the house. Also laying the foundations for the success of Italian design. With one difference compared to other sectors: that the housing boom has not only been economic but also and above all cultural. As the history of the following decades has demonstrated, Molteni immediately revealed that it possesses a strategic vision of design and of the central role of furniture. In 1961, through its founder, Angelo Molteni, has in fact participated in the creator committee of the Milan furniture fair. And in 1975 he entered the contract world, of which he is the leader today, and in 2018 he opened in New York, at 160 madison avenue, the first Molteni Group lifestyle store, bringing together under one roof all the brands gravitating within its orbit.
Molteni, a worldwide history and brand
The current success has its foundations in the decisive choice to innovate the company, bringing it up to date with the roaring times of the economic boom. From the outset, rather than repeating consolidated stylistic elements from other countries and centuries, Molteni&C of Giussano in Brianza worked together with young architects from the Milan Polytechnic to renovate Italian taste, homes and offices. And today Molteni & C (it is part of Molteni Group, turnover over 390 million euros) is a brand of global prominence also in the contract sector, its furniture is found in residences, hotels, flats, headquarters of prestigious institutions (his is the reconstruction of La Fenice in Venice under the guidance of Aldo Rossi) and many collections are so up-to-date that a glance is enough intervention to adapt to socio-cultural changes, such as smart working, to become a disruptive novelty.
At the Molteni Furniture Fair with Davide Bonicelli
Pass Word Evolution, designed by Davide Bonicelli, (present at Milan furniture fair, 7-12 June, all sold out) proves it: it is a set of lines and lights of elegance and simplicity which in its renewal plays on the great strength of Italian industrial design: the detail, the finish, the sense of full and empty….Here is that the base units on the ground or on the base are equipped with a glass top stopsol in the upper part so as to become display cases. And a LED lighting system runs through and underlines both the lower and upper perimeters to define a very refined exchange of light and shadow. The hanging system is equipped with shelves with double-height backs to accommodate large objects. But without ever altering the horizontal momentum which is its peculiar trait. And all system components can be used for multimedia entertainment and remote working tools. Many other details have been introduced but the classic cedar interior is always special, with a characteristic scent, flanked by a new Batik melamine finish.
Finally, it should be remembered that other companies are also part of the Molteni Group, including Armani Dada, of which a splendid novelty designed by Giorgio Armani, Midnight, cocktail cabinet with rods of precious woods that allow a glimpse of the illuminated interior, equipped for great toasts and parties.
Over the decades, the Molteni group has continued and expanded, with great commitment, the cultural path that had distinguished it from the very beginning. Thus, on the occasion of the Salone del Mobile, one of the scheduled exhibitions is dedicated to Aldo Rossi (Aldo Rossi. Design 1960-1997 at the Museo del Novecento – Milan) who had a long and successful collaboration with the Molteni group, whose start was at the opening of the Salone del Mobile in 1980, an immediate echo for a work of unusual originality: a kind of beach cabin, called Elbe cabin which actually wanted to be and is a wardrobe that the architect Aldo Rossi had wanted as a "sign" and signal of an inexhaustible ironic/creative vein.
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