The heart of the matter: Riposa

Sisters Reta and Iva Schnellmann of RIPOSA combine years of expertise and fine craftsmanship into a unique sleeping experience.

By riposa and Das Ideale Heim Magazin für Architektur, Design und Wohnkultur

Das Ideale Heim Magazin für Architektur, Design und Wohnkultur

April 12, 2021 | 10:00 pm CUT

Makeover: the Bed Ais, designed by Jörg Boner, is available in four new colours

It doesn’t take much to get a good night’s sleep: ‘A cosy room, a good mattress and a clear conscience,’ says Reta Schnellmann. Together with her sister Iva Schnellmann, she took over the family-run Riposa business in the canton of Glarus from Walter Schnellmann and Max Rickenbacher in 2018. When the two entrepreneurs start talking about sleep, the layperson quickly realises that there’s a great deal of passion involved. And the sisters certainly know how to transfer the emotional factors associated with sleep to their products.

Sisters Reta and Iva Schnellmann, who have been leading the family business together since 2018

The first thing you learn is that a mattress isn’t just a consumer item, it’s made with painstaking care and great attention to detail. It starts with selecting the materials, extends through the numerous steps in the production process, which are still carried out by hand at the Bilten site, and ends with the quality label that is stamped on every single Riposa product.

Three-dimensional art: the Bed Ais can be combined with a matching bedside table in various colours

Inside the mattress, or at the heart of the matter, as the sisters like to say, the company’s entire expertise and experience come together. Right from the start, the focus has always been on creating a product that guarantees ergonomic and healthy sleep. Due to the different degrees of hardness and various finishing options, a multitude of mattress variants can be produced on the basis of the main brand-name mattress models and adapted to customers’ individual needs. This flexibility is important to Riposa and is possible in no small part thanks to the firm’s local and longstanding partners. Based on the principle of adapt – support – ventilate, the technology ensures the necessary fine-tuning for anatomically optimised posture and provides noticeable support for the lumbar region.

Vision & Comfort: on the production floor, a great deal of importance is attached to the allocation of space – everybody in the sewing workshop has a window place (top). Right from the start, ergonomic and healthy sleep has been Riposa’s top priority

But Riposa is no typical mattress factory: besides mattresses, toppers, pillows and slatted bases, its product range also includes beds and boxspring systems – and everything is Swiss-made, manufactured and produced in the Glarnerland. All the products are interchangeable and can easily be combined with one another. The latest addition to the Riposa family is wonderful evidence of that approach: the Bed Ais, designed by Jörg Boner, brings all the components together, from the mattress all the way to the slatted base and bed design. The Bed Ais itself is filigree in stature and features a harmonious combination of rounded and angular edges. An emotional product, says Iva Schnellmann: ‘With our first joint project, we’ve created a worthy framework for the product that is at the very heart of Riposa.’ And it's now available in four additional colours.

Photos: Studio Willen; Nicolas Bruni

Text: Carina Iten

Riposa AG

Swiss Sleep

Bahnhofstrasse 33

8865 Bilten

Phone +41 (0)55 619 30 00

info@riposa.ch