The talk: Viaduct x Mattiazzi

This June saw the UK launch for Mattiazzi’s 10th anniversary collection, celebrated by an evening of canapes and cocktails in our very own furniture showroom. Kicking off the evening was a panel discussion, hosted by design writer Max Fraser, editor of the London Design Guide.

Max was joined by John Tree, product designer at Jasper Morrison, Kim Colin, founder and designer at Industrial Facility, and Mike Holland, head of industrial design at Foster & Partners.

Each designer has first hand-experience of Mattiazzi’s unique philosophy, having each contributed a piece to the anniversary collection. For Foster & Partners, it was Leva - the product of an investigation into the perfect timber chair. 

The design process started a year and a half ago, after Foster & Partners began to examine the carbon footprint of building materials used in their architectural projects. The aim was to create a chair that was not only comfortable, but also sustainable to produce. Once Holland had worked out the design in his own studio, it was time to find a manufacturer: Mattiazzi was the obvious choice. 

“They’re the type of manufacturer that every manufacturer should aspire to,” said Holland. “They sell back more energy than they make. They combine incredible technology with all the history and grounding of craft. How many manufacturers still make everything under one roof?”

They may not shout about it, but sustainability is at the heart of Mattiazzi’s design ethos. And as Colin quite rightly pointed out, ‘They did this before it was cool.”

For designers and consumers alike, it’s a topic that’s on everybody’s mind. As Tree said: 

“With Mattiazzi, you can get a bit more comfortable developing a project with a company that clearly cares, and not only expresses that it cares but has done that with an investment in its facilities and its factory.”

So when it comes to sustainability, what certifications should we, as the consumer, be looking for? According to Colin, it’s an industry question that there are no official standards in place.

“Companies are able to freely use these terms, ‘sustainable’, ‘recyclable’; but they actually have no measures. With Mattiazzi, there’s nothing false about their claims. It’s a very genuine endeavour.”

Consumers are demanding more transparency when it comes to manufacturing, but a lack of industry standards means that answers aren’t always in easy reach. As Holland said:

“We’ve got various projects where the clients now are saying, ‘We’re going to select from a range of pieces of furniture and we want to know the carbon measure of each’. But actually that’s quite difficult because there aren’t that many manufacturers that do it.”

Sustainability is certainly a buzzword in today’s design vernacular. Yet for the past ten years it has been at the core of Mattiazzi; the quiet crusaders honing their craft in a village in northern Italy. Their processes aren’t part of a marketing push, but are integral to their primary values.

Yet as Tree quite rightly points out: “It’s not at all the selling point of the brand - it’s that they make fantastic things with incredible designers, and that’s just the icing on the cake.”

Mattiazzi products mentioned in this article: