Boffi design: balancing tradition and innovation
Since the 1950’s Boffi Milano has united creativity with the most modern technologies to design kitchens, bathrooms and, more recently, wardrobes.
The quality of the Boffi Design products is the result of an in depth search for the ideal balance between tradition and innovation. The excellence of their designs is guaranteed by the group of experts that follow every phase of their projects, in order to provide custom-made products that perfectly match each client’s needs.
The diverse production of Boffi Kitchens and Boffi Bathrooms, directed by Piero Lissoni, is superbly depicted in the Hide kitchen. Many designers have helped shape this important company, including, in particular, the french designer Marc Sadler, who planned the Alukit kitchen.
Boffi Kitchens: archetype of home design Made in Italy
The history of Boffi, born in 1934 and since expanded globally, is a true exemplar of design Made in Italy. The quality and attention to detail of the Boffi Kitchens collection has introduced our kitchen designs to the entire world. The company’s most recent expansion occurred in 2015 when Boffi merged with the De Padova brand.
The firm, that initially only designed kitchens, later developed bathroom designs and, only recently, wardrobe designs. Nevertheless, their notoriety remains tied to kitchens, of which they are still leading manufacturers. One of their most recent productions is the Salinas kitchen by Patricia Urquiola, a project founded on creating a relationship between antiquity and technology.
“I imagined a kitchen made of surfaces that would feel truly tactile, concrete and real. I wanted it to be a space made of articulated compositions, comprising of different dimensions and structured to carry out all essential functions”, said the acclaimed designer about her project.
This kitchen, a must-have of the Boffi Kitchen collection, can be customised to fit each client’s aesthetic taste: it can be monochromatic and made with a single material or it can be a mixture of materials and colours. Indeed, the cupboard doors have been designed as panels that can be chosen individually and, if desired, changed or replaced over time. The kitchen must be able to change as our taste changes, continuously matching our preferences.
Boffi Bathrooms: a domestic space as you’ve never seen it before
The aesthetic beauty of the Boffi bathroom collection is internationally renowned. The baths, containers and accessories designed by Piero Lissoni, Norbert Wangen and Victor Vasilev have allowed Boffi bathrooms to become one of the most sought-after and prestigious bathroom designs.
Boffi Milano: an enterprise shaped by a city
The reputation of Boffi Milano was built in over 60 years of business. It was only in 1980, however, that the brand started gaining international fame. The city of Milan undoubtedly facilitated this turning point, by being host to many Boffi events and providing a space for the brand’s expansion. Boffi Milano largely focused on the promotion of cultural events, which positively publicised their name. One to note was their decision to abandon the primary Salone del Mobile location, held in the city’s FieraMilano in Rho, and show their designs in many other symbolic parts of the city. By doing so, they anticipated what then became the Fuori Salone, the alternative design week that takes place all over the city at the same time as the main one, but that is not restricted to the main trade fair complex.
Boffi’s installations in Milan have made history. An example of this was their 1997 exhibition of the WK6 kitchen (World Kitchen 6) that took place inside the deconsecrated San Paolo Converso church. Another instance took place in 2002, when they presented the LT kitchen designed by Piero Lissoni at the Ex-Officine Caproni, a former aeronautical workshop. In 2010 they expanded their Milanese showroom in via Solferino and exhibited their installation called “The Apartment”, a reproduction of a true domestic environment comprising a living space, a bedroom, kitchens and bathrooms. Boffi currently has 23 showrooms around the world, but the relationship between the brand and Milan remains the strongest one.