Brand Bites: Arper

A so-sharp-it-cuts eye for colour, form and materials, along with an art-directed expression that few brands can match, have elevated Italian furniture brand Arper into the major league internationally since its launch back in 1989. But even though it’s one of the most credible players out there, the independent, family-owned company never takes its eye off the local ball.

Its home turf – the Veneto region of northern Italy – is rich with projects where Arper’s products have been specified to lend a sense of contemporary and sustainable beauty. Its innovative Catifa Carta chair, for example – which features a 100% biodegradable shell that’s made of 29 layers of paper*, bonded together with a natural resin – is working it in a number of locations, including at the headquarters of the Tecnica Group in Treviso (a stone’s throw from the Arper’s base in neighbouring Monastier di Treviso).

Here, almost 100 pieces of this new sustainable iteration of the original Catifa chair, first designed in 2001 by Lievore Altherr Molina, help shape the interior of the building’s clean-lined auditorium space. The whole premises were recently redesigned by Carlo Saccardo, and, with the Italian architect’s emphasis on such characteristics as tactiity and visual levity, it comes as little surprise that Arper was included in the mix.

Staying in the region, but heading to a higher altitude, Catifa Carta has been specified at The Roof Cortina, a bistrot and lounge bar in the eponymous upmarket Italian ski resort. Saccardo once again, this time in collaboration with local architect Maurizio Mattioni, has walked the fine line between contemporary design expression and vernacular authenticity. While reclaimed wood from a historic Ampezzo barn is married with large panoramic windows that provide guests with striking views of the Dolomites, Catifa Carta, with its rational, timeless design language, operates as a sleek counterpoint to the rich visual and haptic texture of the interiors.

It’s bella figura all round!

© Architonic