Billiani

Billiani is a family company that for more than a century has made one thing, and made it in wood: chairs. It works with a network of local craft workshops, each specialising in one stage of production, and over the last twenty years it has moved from large supplies for hotels and restaurants to signature design.

A century of chairs

The business was founded in 1911 to make bentwood chairs with rush seats. The family workshop lay at the heart of what after the war would become the chair district, and the brothers Ottone, Orlando, Lino and Bruno Billiani led it through the years of the economic boom. In 1986 the third generation joined the company and Billiani specialised in seating for large contracts, above all abroad.

The turn to design

In the late 1990s Luigi Billiani, the founder's grandson and an architect by training, decided with his wife Veronik Romanutti to focus on design. The debut came at the 2002 Salone del Mobile, with a provocative stand designed by Marco Ferreri, who also designed a chair for the company. Alongside Werther Toffoloni's tradition-minded designs, the collaboration with Emilio Nanni brought a colourful, pop tone; some products have entered the collections of MoMA and the Triennale Design Museum.

Billiani today

Since 2019 the art direction has been entrusted to the Milanese architect and designer Cristina Celestino. The chair remains at the centre of the catalogue, together with wood, chosen also for reasons of sustainability and sourced from certified forests. The company still works mainly for the contract sector, with custom products for hotels, restaurants and offices, but its pieces are increasingly finding their way into homes.

Sources

• Billiani – Azienda