Furnishing the modern executive workspace with Bonaldo

‘Made in Italy’ is a longstanding metric in the world of quality interior design – and few brands are as synonymous with its cultivated reaches as Bonaldo.

The Padua-based company was founded in 1936, initially as a maker of metal bedsteads. By the 1960s, the purview had expanded into exemplary Italian furniture on an international scale, with an inaugural showing at Milan’s Salone del Mobile in 1971. Since then, the inventory has expanded exponentially: into tables, chairs, sofas, beds, accessories and lighting, typifying a finely crafted and contemporary sensibility.

The year 2000 onwards has seen the inauguration of a raft of collaborations with renowned designers and creatives including Karim Rashid, Alain Gilles and Toshiyuki Yoshino, working to Bonaldo’s overarching ethos of synthesising man and material. What’s more, even with a presence in 90 countries, Bonaldo remains a family business, led by third generation son Alberto Bonaldo.

Today, the company has found a defining ethos in ‘B/Style’. Driven by a constant research into changing design world aesthetics and trends, it’s a philosophy, the brand explains, that goes ‘beyond the idea of coordinated style or timeless decor and achieve[s] the goal of creating environments in which the interiors and the objects within can enter into an in-depth dialogue’. An apotheosis of this holistic approach can be seen in its new Executive Space series.

Some context. The idea of the modern corporation (and its stratified staff structures) first came to fruition around a 100 years ago. At the centre of these structures was (often still is) the executive office – the nucleus of hierarchical power, occupied by an all-powerful CEO. A sanctum for ideas, decision-making and authority; and a space of prestige and gravitas, out of bounds to the majority of staff.

Workplace culture and the space it inhabits has gone through a huge transformation. It has become democratised and, crucially, more outwardly collaborative. When it comes to the executive office, open-door policies are now ubiquitous; power isn’t so sequestered. The recontextualisation of the workspace has resulted in more fluid and adaptable spaces that encourage communal interaction, individual productivity and the meshing of different levels of the workplace hierarchy, from CEOs down.

This changing world is the driving force behind Executive Space: Bonaldo’s new capsule collection of boundary-blurring furnishings designed not just for the office, but for the specific evolution of the needs of senior management.

Extant Bonaldo collaborator Mauro Lipparini – a lauded design/architect and former winner of the Good Design® Global Awards – is responsible for a trio of pieces. First, Diver is inspired by Constructivism, a Russian-founded art/architectural movement that sought to reflect the industrialised society of the early 20th century. The sinuous, Canaletto-walnut-topped desk also evokes the momentum and grace of its athletic namesake; its asymmetric curvature affording a sense of dynamism (emphasised in the striking metal legs in differing proportions).

He also conceived Flatiron to fulfil a quiet multiplicity of uses: from an authoritative exec desk, to a table or writing surface – all designed in thrall to New York’s iconic, slimline Flatiron Building, especially in the rounded, parallelepiped legs that support the top at divergent angles.

The Lipparini triumvirate is completed with Moneypenny; a subtle, cylindrical chest of drawers – echoing the congenial efficiency of M’s secretary in the Bond novels – that can be used alone or with a desk, and is available in Canaletto walnut with bronze top and base or in brushed coal oak with lead top and base.

Finally, Bonaldo Lab has created two iterations of the Newton office chair. The original design has a high backrest and a wide, enveloping shell, ideally suited to an executive context in its inimitable statement aesthetic and midcentury-style sensibilities. Newton Low is more subtle; suited to use as a more minimalist guest seat, still with elongated armrests and a deepset bowl for maximum comfort. Both can be upholstered in fabric or leather.

Executive Space is a honed, meticulous collection that makes subtle nods to the established structures of the traditional office while embracing the hyper-versatile and unrestricted possibilities of the modern workplace – and a seamless evocation of Bonaldo’s B/Style ethos.

© Architonic

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