Bonaldo is a way of imagining, creating, living and furnishing. Bonaldo conceives and creates design furniture collections for living spaces which connect places and people, from the dining room to the living room and the sleeping area.
InteriorDaily talks with the company's Managing Director and third generation of the family, Alberto Bonaldo.
Alberto Bonaldo.
Could you tell us about the history of the brand?
'Bonaldo is an industrial company that has been making furniture and furnishing accessories for almost 90 years. Established in 1936 by Giovanni Vittorio Bonaldo as a craft business specialising in the production of metal bedsteads, the company, headquartered in Padua, turned into a manufacturing industry in the 1960s through a continuous development.
The collection extended to create a line of furniture that arrived in 1971, for the first time, at the Salone del Mobile of Milan.
Today, under my leadership, the company's Managing Director and third generation of the family, the goal is to offer collections designed to resist fashions and changes and give life to environments that connect with the people who live there and the spaces they occupy.
The production and stylistic path translate into a new concept of furniture where different elements of the collections interact with each other, merging into a single identity style. This process leads to the realisation of the 'B/Style' furniture project, a milestone in the company's history. B/Style gives rise to coordinated collections characterized by a single overall stylistic language, the result of the connection between the individual elements and the environments to which they belong in a uniform and natural way.'
In what markets is the brand active, and how are the market conditions right now?
'The company is distributed in 91 countries around the world and has over 900 stores, 35 of which are Bonaldo Flagship Stores, Bonaldo Spaces and Bonaldo Studios.
The market conditions are particularly favourable in US, Africa, Middle East and Asia, as per the recent openings in Atlanta, Houston, Doha, Dalian, Shanghai, Tashkent, Beijing, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Jakarta where Bonaldo's spaces are all united by a single, worldwide highly identifying stylistic code.
Noteworthy is also the recent expansion into the African continent with the opening of a Flagship Store in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, preceded by the Bonaldo Spaces in Casablanca and Rabat.'
You were recently at Salone del Mobile in Milan. What did you think of the fair?
'The Salone del Mobile in Milan confirms every year its role as a landmark event for furniture companies as Bonaldo and for designers. We're glad to be part of this "family" since 1971, and after more than 50 years we know that this is one of the most challenging and inspiring weeks of the year.'
What products did you show at the fair?
'The "Evolutionary" 2024 Collection was showcased at the Salone del Mobile exhibition space.
The spotlight was on the brand-new accessories that harmoniously integrate with Bonaldo's most loved and iconic elements. Among the new features, there were the striking and bold Louver Table designed by Alain Gilles, the Hippos tables by Marconato & Zappa, the Boolean sofa designed by Giuseppe Viganò, combined with the armchair of the same name with its enveloping style, and the Doge armchair by Mauro Lipparini which evokes a 1970s aesthetic.
Among the chairs, the rigorous Pi Chair by Alain Gilles caught the eye thanks to its graphic frame. For the most intimate area of the house, the sleeping area, we presented new elements such as the Honeymoon bed and the Isola clothes stand, combined with the Isola Mirror from the same family. Coffee tables, consoles and clothes stands interacted harmoniously with each other, like the unexpected architecture of the One Console and the versatile Litos and Flac coffee tables. There were also new elements in the lighting collection such as the essential and elegant Keshi lamp, and the Pepita collection, which includes suspension, free-standing and floor lamps.
A highly significant new aspect was the introduction of a collection very well received by our clients and guests dedicated to the Executive Space: a series of tables, armchairs and containers with formal aesthetics and a functional design for important business environments.'
You recently presented a new campaign. Can you tell us about this?
'The 2024 Bonaldo advertising campaign has been presented both online and offline and will have different declinations in Italy and worldwide among the major design magazines, websites and social media. The campaign takes place in a brutalist villa in a forest near Hamburg that sees the meeting between nature and culture, where external architectural structures are perfectly in tune with interiors and furnishings. It presents a harmony suspended in the soft late afternoon light and evokes the unmistakable atmosphere of the 1970s.
In this new Bonaldo story the products play a twin role: they are both interpreters and protagonists. Their support for the alchemy of spaces comes from their dialogue with the strong, decisive and highly distinctive architectural structure of the house; the result is an environment developed in a coherent and logical way, in which each element makes its own meaningful contribution to the development of the story.
The campaign subjects are the Padiglioni table, an architectural reference in which the asymmetry of the base creates a dynamic effect, for the dining area and the Phil sofa, the perfect synthesis between versatility, comfort and a variety of details, for the living space.'
More information:
Bonaldo
[email protected]
www.bonaldo.com
Italy