Finish line

MDF Italia dips into the rich archives of its latest acquisition, reviving forgotten classics and discovering a new love of lacquer

- MARCO SAMMICHELI

Acerbis, which has been producing storage furniture since 1870, has played a quietly pivotal role in Italian design, collaborating with a number of high-profile artists and designers. It was one of the first Italian companies to work with Japanese designers whose compositional language added metallic inserts and new materials to the wood of northern Italy’s Val Seriana. Collaborators included the likes of Kazuyo Komoda, whose ‘Asisai’ umbrella stand, featuring three simple and harmonious bent steel wires fixed to a flat base, has been a bestseller since its launch in the late 1990s.

Acerbis also worked with Jonathan De Pas, Donato D’Urbino and Paola Lomazzi, important figures in pop design culture who investigated new perspectives on the use of space with coloured module units. And as the Memphis movement built momentum, the company introduced designs by Massimo and Lella Vignelli and Vico Magistretti.