Architect Antonio Citterio reflects on his enduring partnership with Flexform, the Italian furniture brand he has worked with for over 50 years
It started with a friendship between two kindred spirits—architect Antonio Citterio met furniture entrepreneur Pietro Galimberti while they were studying at Italy’s Polytechnic University of Milan in the seventies. Galimberti and his family run their furniture company Flexform in Meda, Italy, a city known for its finesse in sofa production; they took a chance on Citterio, who was then 23 years old and fresh out of university and embarked on an enduring collaboration that has lasted for more than five decades since.
“My contact person [from Flexform] has always been Pietro Galimberti, [who is] a few years older than me, with whom I have always been on the same wavelength, the same way as it happens today with Saul Galimberti, who belongs to the new generation of the family. This ease of relationship is the reason why at Flexform, it is enough for me to sketch a new idea, and then study together how to find the formal solutions,” shares Citterio.
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Founded in the 1950s, Flexform has gone from strength to strength, tapping into brilliant minds like Citterio’s to create elegant and utterly comfortable designs that suit the needs of modern life. “The 1960s and 1970s were years of the tremendous economic boom in Italy; I wanted to create products that responded to the needs of an ideal Italian family, adopting an approach that’s inspired by the values of normality. This approach, I’m proud to say, has played an important part in shaping Flexform’s identity,” says Citterio.
Since then, the Italian architect has created best-selling pieces that include the Groundpiece, a sofa first designed in 2001 with a generous width that’s made for lounging. Another key design is the Cestone, which features a checkerboard back crafted with woven strips of cowhide.
Here, he tells us more about these sofas and how his relationship with Flexform has developed over time.
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