Porro

PurplePrice Mag · October 26, 2026 · 3 min read

Porro is an Italian furniture company from Brianza, the area north of Milan traditionally linked to high-quality furniture making. Run by the same family for four generations, it is known for its essential, geometric design and for its systems of bookcases, storage units and wardrobes.

From workshop to factory

In 1925 the brothers Giulio and Stefano Porro opened a workshop in Montesolaro di Carimate, at the heart of the Brianza furniture district, making period-style furniture for Milan's new middle class.

In the 1950s the second generation, the cousins Carlo, Arturo and Silvio, took the company towards modern furniture, helped by a long collaboration with the architect Giulio Moscatelli, who in 1955 designed the new workshop next to the family home. In the 1960s Porro became an industrial company and in 1968 it opened a new factory.

Munari's logo and the arrival of Lissoni

In 1966 Bruno Munari designed the company logo: the two Os in the word Porro became two screws seen from above, the most representative tool of a company that works wood.

From the mid-1980s, with the third generation (the cousins Lorenzo, Fabio, Giovanni and Danilo), design became the driving force of the company. The collaboration with Piero Lissoni began, art director since 1989, who designed some of the brand's best-known pieces, such as the Ferro table of 1994, still one of its best sellers. The Cologne furniture fair, projects with the German designers Werner Aisslinger and Wolfgang Tolk and the entry into the German market opened the way abroad; in the 1990s a worldwide network of agents was set up.

The 2000s

In 2000 production expanded with a new 14,000 square metre building, and in 2004 the first Porro store opened in Milan, in Via Durini, moving to Via Visconti di Modrone in 2023. The catalogue grew with outside designers such as Christophe Pillet, Jean-Marie Massaud, Front, Alessandro Mendini, GamFratesi, Gabriele and Oscar Buratti, Nao Tamura, Dordoni Studio, Francesco Rota and Yabu Pushelberg.

In 2014 the fourth generation joined the company with Maria Porro, now marketing and communications director, followed by her cousins Giovanni, Giulio and Beatrice. In 2017 Porro joined Altagamma, the foundation of Italy's high-end cultural and creative companies, and in 2025 it presented its first collection of sofas. According to the company, Porro today has more than 100 employees and over 600 points of sale worldwide, and 70% of its turnover comes from exports.

Designing by subtraction

Porro's philosophy combines craft tradition and the most advanced production technology. Formal clarity, geometry and function guide every project: the products are born by subtraction, through progressive simplification, and even the most complex systems start from a simple aesthetic idea.

The factory follows the same idea. Production covers about 20,000 square metres across the 1968 plant and the 2000 building, with fully glazed outer walls and a roof that is half glass and half covered in solar panels: thanks also to working hours that change with the seasons, on about 80% of the days of the year work is done by daylight, without electric lighting. Porro makes the wood, lacquered and melamine panels of its furniture in-house, cuts its own real-wood veneers to order and does its own painting; a new plant makes the panels to measure, based on each customer's order, instead of in standard sizes.