The book Bonacina Grandi Maestri tells the story of over 120 years of Italian design

Bulrush, rattan, malacca – “It’s the material that creates this style. The big names worked with us because we could make shapes that would have been impossible or too expensive with other materials”

The book Bonacina Grandi Maestri tells the story of over 120 years of Italian design

The list of names that have collaborated with Bonacina 1889 includes the great Masters of Italian Design, such as Giovanni Travasa, Franco Albini, Joe Colombo, and Gio Ponti. They experimented with shapes and volumes: one can speak of a Bonacina style, which goes beyond the company’s own production and defines a chapter of Italian style. It’s a matter of taste, culture—but also of boldness, and sometimes irreverence, in a modernity that, as we recall here, becomes essential if we want to use the word style.

The book Bonacina Grandi Maestri recounts over 120 years of Italian design history through collaborations with the great masters of the 20th century. It is a journey through modernism, rationalism, and neo-rationalism. Throughout this journey, a distinctly Lombard character emerges, closely tied to the tradition of Brianza: a region that combines a practical approach with a minimalist style. Bonacina has successfully blended craftsmanship with a modern sensibility, working with natural materials such as wicker, reed, rattan, and malacca, shaping them with traditional techniques like the use of water and fire to create forms that are fluid and light, yet sophisticated and comfortable. In the mid-20th century, the company took a stand against the spread of synthetic materials like plastics and metals, choosing instead to focus on natural and sustainable solutions.

Bulrush, rattan, Malacca; «It’s the material that creates this style. The big names worked with us because we could make shapes that would have been impossible or too expensive with other materials. The distinctive feature is the balance, between manufacturing, craftsmanship and art – by balancing these weights, the Grandi Maestri preceded the avant-garde that defined them», says Elia Bonacina, member of the fourth generation, holding the leadership of the company in his hands. 

Giovanni Travasa x Bonacina 1889 – Eureka, Eva, Foglia and Palla

Giovanni Travasa – Eureka, Eva, Foglia and Palla are the names of the armchairs designed for Bonacina 1889. The armchairs are exhibited in the permanent collection of the Triennale Design Museum. Travasa has been collaborating with Bonacina 1889 since 1954 – his creations have been in the company’s catalog without any interruption since then. Wooden materials intertwine to form curves, in an experimentation with organic forms. At that time, minimalism was not a concept: yet Travasa, with these objects, anticipated and went beyond it.

Franco Albini x Bonacina 1889 – Margherita and Gala

Franco Albini – Sostanza della forma is a constant in the career of Albini as a designer. In the armchairs Margherita and Gala – made in 1951 for Bonacina 1889 – in malacca and Indian cane, the three-dimensional and sculptural supporting structures are designed to embrace the body, thanks to the natural elasticity and flexibility of the raw material and to the skillful hands with which they were made.  This is the work where you can recognize the traits of Albini artisan.

Margherita is the first armchair of Italian design without the classic four legs, but was born from the concept of the flower — more precisely, the daisy. The simplicity of this wild flower has not prevented artists and poets from being inspired. Franco Albini and Vittorio Bonacina were no exception. 

Gio Ponti x Bonacina 1889 – Continuum

Gio Ponti – Bonacina can enhance the work of a master such as Gio Ponti. This is the goal of Continuum, an armchair made of hand-curved rush in 1963, which bears the full imprint of Ponti’s style in the early 1960s. Ponti, who in 1960 created the Hotel Parco dei Principi in Sorrento, here almost separates the design from its official nature. He lightens the structure to the maximum, transforming it into a vital outline, freeing this bergère from any suspicion of gravity and décor. Continuum is a sinopia, a graphism, a satisfying and Mediterranean pulsation. After all, it was Ponti himself who insisted on the need to be modern at all costs and to spread new cultural stimuli.

Joe Colombo x Bonacina 1889

Joe Colombo – When modern industrial production did not yet exist in Italy, Joe Colombo saw the integration of design into the industry. In 1965 he designed Universale, the first chair that was moulded in full by injection using a single plastic material. In the same year, Nastro appeared in international magazines – cane curved so as to embrace the seat and back in a single structure.

Matteo Mammoli