Kategória: Outdoor furnitures

The Model A chair has become an icon of industrial esthetics. It’s unfailing popularity since 1934 has enabled to enter the Collections of the Vitra Design Museum, MOMA and the Pompidou Center. This mythical chair, crafted of sheet metal, has been assured by «it’s fool-proof solidity, it’s unequalled lightness, it’s easy maintenance» advantages of which can be included «inexpensive».

All merit goes to Xavier Pauchard (1880-1948) who was a pioneer of galvanisation in France. Shortly after World War 1, based in Autun, Burgundy, he found himself (a visionary and inventive entrepreneur) in charge of a flourishing manufacture of galvanised sheet-metal domesic items, which at the time, embodied household comfort. It was in 1927 that he registered the trademark TOLIX, at the same time converting to the «production of chairs, armchairs, stools and metal furnitures».

The different models (rustproof, robust and stackable) conceived by Xavier Pauchard found their place directly inside factories, offices and hospitals, as well as outside, on cafe terraces and in public parks. Embarked aboard the ship, Normandie, in 1935, these chairs also filled the aisles of the 1937 Exposition Internationale –Arts et Techniques. Furniture for children was created in 1935 under the mark of « La Mouette ». At the end of the 50’s, with the succession of his son, Jean, Tolix and it’s 80 workers produced about 60 000 units annually. This prosperous company remained in the same family until 2004.

We owe the revival of the brand Tolix to Chantal Andriot. It was with passion and loyality for the company that this, ex Financial Directrice, launched into the adventure, along with a handful of employees, and bought back Tolix. The only woman in a man’s world and with her knowledge she was able to give back a new vitality, in perpetuating the dual standards of quality and innovation to an industry skilled in the making of functional furniture. Today, half of Tolix’s annual turnover is for export, half of which, is for the United States.

To assist in the artistic direction, Chantal Andriot has chosen the designers Jean-François Dingjian et Eloi Chafaï alias Normal Studio. Their design questions industrial workmanship, freeing it from the past in order to valorise the workshop’s legendary know-how.

Today this enterprise is endowed with the latest technology which accompanies it’s numerous inherited manual processes and equipement.

…Moreover, it’s with real legitimacy that Tolix received the label, «A Living Heritage Enterprise» awarded by the Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industry, in 2006. The production of the new 2010 catalogue coincides with the launching of a new children’s range drawn up by Normal Studio and the tandem Sébastien Cordoléani & Franck Fontana, as well as to announce the re-edition of the small armchair «La Mouette».

Since 2003 is FEEK “the architect toolbox” as a pioneer in design furniture using surprising new materials. It all started with tailor-made coated foam products which after 5 years resulted in a completely new approach in the furniture-, interior- and building sector. FEEK offers a whole range of services of new to explore award winning designs, materials, products and processes. With FEEK you can start with an affordable “one-off” product up to a million!

DESIGN@FEEK

we look forward every challenge in design, engineering and production!, from furniture up to architecture.

The company is run by its founders Giampietro Nardi (chairman) and Maria Grazia Mecenero and their daughters (CEO) Floriana and Anna Nardi. The company is controlled entirely by the Nardi family. The management and production sites are all situated in Chiampo (VI), a region which the company is profoundly tied to and where it continues to make further investments.

Nardi Spa designs and manufactures top quality designer outdoor furnishings for various settings and styles, providing well-being and relaxation for its customers thanks to products that are guaranteed 100% Made in Italy.

The company just recently completed the generous 3,000 m2 extension of its warehouse/shipping department and of the office area in the main company headquarters and administrative offices (September 2015). The three main production sites will shortly be supplemented by a fourth, expected to start up in early 2016. The new facility was designed with the most recent innovations in terms of plant engineering, technology and the environment.

The History of Plank begins in 1893. The basic objective has always been the investigation and intensive research for technological possibilities connected to design. In recent years the company has placed at the center of its work a strong connection with research, sustainability and design collaborating with renowned designers such as Konstantin Grcic, Naoto Fukasawa, Björn Dahlström, Ludovica + Roberto Palomba, Biagio Cisotti and Sandra Laube. The collection has achieved distinction in a diversity of products: chairs, armchairs, lounge seating, table systems, stools. Plank products have received numerous awards and acknowledgments, for instance the XXII Compasso d’Oro ADI Design Award for the MYTO chair in addition to the IF Product Design Award – Gold selection for the MIURA stool. These products now form part of the permanent collections of some of the most important museums worldwide such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the International Design Museum in Munich, the Design Museum of London as well as the Art Institute of Chicago.