Caimi Brevetti

Caimi Brevetti is a company from Brianza that, as its name says (brevetti means patents), was born from patents. After decades of furniture and accessories, over the last fifteen years it has specialised in a field little explored by design: acoustics, with panels and objects that absorb noise in rooms.

From the kitchen to public spaces

The company was founded in 1949 in Nova Milanese by Renato and Mario Caimi. At first it made patented kitchen accessories; in the 1960s and 1970s it moved on to products for public spaces. From the 1990s it began working with architects and designers, including Michele De Lucchi, Mario Bellini and Claudio Bellini, Marc Sadler, Giulio Iacchetti, Matteo Ragni, Paola Navone and Alessandro Mendini: out of this came modular furniture, bookcases and chairs in metal combined with plastic, leather, wood and glass.

Snowsound

In 2011 came Snowsound, a patented technology for sound-absorbing panels in polyester of varying density, able to correct the acoustics of offices, restaurants and homes without giving up on form. Among the best-known products are the Flap panels by Alberto Meda, awarded the Compasso d'Oro in 2016. Sound-absorbing fabrics followed from 2017, and the Snowsound Art series turned the panels into supports for drawings by Gillo Dorfles, Gio Ponti (with the Gio Ponti Archives) and Mendini.

Research on sound

In 2020 the company opened the Open Lab, seven acoustic laboratories devoted to research on sound and open free of charge to universities, institutes and artists; the project received an Honourable Mention at the 2022 Compasso d'Oro. For Expo 2020 Dubai it built a tunnel of 800 sound-absorbing elements in the Italian Pavilion, and in 2025 it received the Compasso d'Oro International Award for a technology combining sound absorption and the reduction of electromagnetic waves. Renato Caimi died in 2022, aged 97; the presidency passed to his son Giovanni.

Sources

• Wikipedia – Caimi Brevetti (it)
• Wikipedia – Alberto Meda (it)