Heart of glass: Sovet

Glass is a truly versatile material, and a firm favourite of architects and designers. It can be completely invisible, brightly coloured or intricately patterned, and can be used for everything from cladding skyscrapers to making delicate drinking vessels. Harnessing this versatility offers designers the opportunity to create refined and characterful products that blend tradition with modernity.

Italian furniture brand Sovet mastered the manufacture of glass in the 1990s and quickly gained a reputation for products that use glass to create original and stylish shapes. More recently, Sovet also began to work with materials such as steel, aluminium, ceramics and wood, and has expanded its collection to include everything from mirrors and display cabinets to dining furniture and upholstered sofas – always created with a focus on craftsmanship and quality.

Sovet was founded in the late 1980s by six glaziers from Treviso. The firm was subsequently acquired in 1990 by its current owner Guido Porcellato, who helped to transform it into a distinguished manufacturer of high-quality furniture. The company has never lost sight of its heritage in glass production, which it blends with contemporary design and manufacturing to create elegant and versatile products for domestic and contract use.

Since 2010, under the art direction of award-winning designer Gianluigi Landoni, Sovet has developed a portfolio of unique and timeless pieces that utilise its diverse manufacturing expertise. In 2003, it began an important collaboration with Spanish studio Lievore Altherr Molina, which produced the successful Divetro collection and, more recently, the minimal and varied Essential collection. This range of tables and accessories features geometric shapes and a material palette that reflects Sovet’s pursuit of a pure yet infinitely versatile design language. The Regolo tables and console, for example, combine simple planar surfaces to create elemental pieces that can be customised by specifying different materials for the bases and surfaces. The Visual mirrors, which also form part of the collection, offer similar possibilities for customisation, with a variety of geometric shapes and material options available for both the frame and glass.

Sovet also works with other renowned international designers including Studio Irvine, Ichiro Iwasaki and Matthias Demacker to develop pieces that are distinguished by a simplicity of form along with the creative use of industrial processes. These qualities are encapsulated in the brand’s core collection, which includes the Slim range of tables, coffee tables, consoles and benches, created by Demacker. The elegant frames and simple surfaces of these products can be specified in a wide range of materials, which enables them to adapt to any interior scheme. At the forthcoming Salone del Mobile furniture fair in Milan, the company will launch the latest addition to the Slim collection; a sofa that applies the same pared-back aesthetic to a comfortable piece of upholstery.

Like all leading furniture producers, Sovet regularly updates and expands its portfolio of products to ensure it meets the evolving needs of customers around the world. The Magda sideboard, launched in 2018, exemplifies how Sovet continues to apply its core principles to versatile pieces for modern spaces. The collection of sideboards combines mirrored fronts in a range of finishes with marble-effect ceramic surfaces that match the tops of the company’s coffee tables and consoles. This means the sideboards can easily be used alongside other items from the brand’s collection as part of an aesthetically unified interior scheme.

Along with its continued focus on quality materials, craftsmanship and a consistent design language, Sovet is still distinguished by its dedication to glass innovation. The company’s research and development team is always experimenting with glass and creating products that bring this familiar material right up to date. This pursuit of new forms for glass, combined with over 25 years of manufacturing expertise, makes Sovet one of Italy’s most original producers of high-quality design products.

© Architonic