Te m p l e s o f s a v o i r - f a i re
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The day’s work is left on the bench, where it is covered with a red cloth to protect it
Cantù is a small city in Brianza with a deep, generations-old bond with furniture making. The local furniture industry experienced an extraordinary openness to design throughout the years of the Selettiva del Mobile exhibitions: 20 years (from 1955 to 1975), during which the best Italian and international architects (Carlo De Carli, Ico Parisi, Gio Ponti, the Finns Alvar Aalto and Tapio Wirkkala, just to name a few) worked side by side with the artisans in the workshops of Cantù. Together they fully and clear-sightedly accomplished the most significant achievements in design, production and marketing in the furniture sector. Thanks to the capable and open-minded artisans and entrepreneurs who embraced collaboration with preeminent figures in the field of design and architecture, Brianza furniture was elevated to the highest incarnation of the principles and triumphs of Italian design. This sets the stage for the story of Riva 1920, one of the best-known furniture manufacturers in Cantù, distinguished by a strong personality in its approach to production and in what I like to define “the aesthetics of ethics”. We will get a better understanding of both aspects from the words of Maurizio Riva, head of the family business (co-owned with his brother Davide and his sister Anna). We met Maurizio at the company’s facilities in Cantù: a factory, a showroom and a wood museum featuring over two thousand historical woodworking machines and tools that the Riva family collected with patience and passion. QUESTION How did you affirm your identity as a company and express the great significance of wood? How important for you are projects that go beyond the mere production of furniture? ANSWER Our philosophy is based on a vision that I continue to carry forward emphatically: to produce timeless furniture for future generations. It is a concept based on principles that I have taken as my own. The first is
the use of reforestation and reclaimed wood, like the old kauri wood which we use to make tables. It is extracted from the ground, where, after some great natural disaster of the past, it has remained buried under water and mud for thousands of years. We show our respect for the material by using it to produce tables, so as to preserve and highlight its identity and vigour. Another example is the way in which we reuse the mooring posts (briccole in Italian) that marked the navigation channels in the Venice lagoon; our projects represent a third life for this wood, the first being the original tree, the second as an element in Venice’s infrastructure and the third being the one we have created for it in the shape of furniture and furnishing accessories based on projects by famous designers. The third example is the important project we have developed with the community of San Patrignano (a residential treatment centre – Ed.), where we set up a carpentry workshop in which furniture is created with the recycled staves from old wine casks. This is an example of how new life can be given not only to wood but also to young people who are in need of support. Q. Riva 1920 is a synonym for prime quality raw materials and fine workmanship. How do you reconcile industrial and handmade production processes? A. Modern technology allows us to execute precision works down to a tenth of a millimetre, something a carpenter could never achieve by hand. Production processes have changed dramatically: certain projects (such as the Piano Design bookcase, which required one full year to design and develop) would not be possible without the use of technologically advanced tools. The equation here is: technology plus workmanship equals quality. As for the wood, we never use particle board. Our furniture has a body in plywood or laminated board that is then edged and veneered, like my grandfather used to do, with solid wood, which we apply with a
Opposite page, the Riva 1920 workshops: hand-applied oil and wax finishes and attention to detail are fundamental elements that combine with the most sophisticated technology to create the Riva quality. “Modern technology allows us to execute precision works down to a tenth of a millimetre, something a carpenter could never achieve by hand,” explains Maurizio Riva, leader of the family business. “Technology plus workmanship equals quality.” (riva1920.it).
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