The Legacy of Tacchini
Italian design house Tacchini continues to build on its legacy more than 50 years after its founding, with the debut of its first Milan showroom and ongoing collaborations with leading designers.
Originality and an unwavering commitment to elevated, timeless design are the driving forces behind Italian furniture house Tacchini. Since 1967, the family-run company has worked with the world’s leading designers to execute its vision, enlisting giants of the industry to create furniture that is, as the company describes, a “meeting point between experience and research, devotion and emotion”. Also central to Tacchini’s modus operandi is honouring Italy’s rich design history through its Design Classic range, featuring relaunched iconic pieces from as early as the 1930s.
Key pieces in the Design Classics catalogue include Mario Bellini’s modular Le Mura sofa, which helped define the Italian design vernacular of the 1970s, the iconic Agnese armchair by Gianfranco Frattini, released in 1956 and equally as relevant today, and Achille Castiglioni’s Babela stacking chair (designed in 1958 and released in 1970), which represents a masterclass in technical innovation.
“Here, I finally see the domestic imagery that has always been in my dreams coming to life, filled with warm and welcoming atmospheres.”
But Tacchini – available in Australia at – isn’t standing still: it continues to collaborate with some of the globe’s biggest names in design, artisans who are rethinking and reshaping how we live. It also opened its first mono-brand showroom during this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan. The showroom brings the brand’s philosophy to life within an early 20th-century apartment in the city’s historic Brera district. Tacchini worked with Studio Lys on the concept, retaining the apartment’s original layout while enhancing it to showcase its pieces, splashing rooms in a palette of sky blue, pale pink and light yellow. Styling by Charlotte de la Grandière evokes a lived-in quality, reflecting how high-end
For Giusi Tacchini, the company’s CEO and , the space is the realisation of a long-held vision. “Here, I finally see the domestic imagery that has always been in my dreams coming to life, filled with warm and welcoming atmospheres – a place where I bring with me what I’ve built, and where every object carries with it the story of an encounter, with the designers who have accompanied my journey in the world of furniture,” she says.
The Bread and Butter collection is aptly named: its pieces were – literally – modelled in bread and butter. The modular Butter sofa’s form was crafted from butter as it softened, resulting in an oversized sculptural piece that, like the dairy product, is highly versatile. The striking Bread table and console resemble the bread from which they were initially hewn. Carved from ash, these shapely pieces are given a stain that enhances the wood’s natural grain, while the console’s maple inlay has a primrose-hued stain – a sleight of hand that results in it appearing like buttered bread.
The Africa chair by legendary post-modernist Italian architects and designers Afra and Tobia Scarpa has been rebooted for the 21st century. The husband-wife team originally designed the sculptural piece in 1975, manufacturing it with methods traditionally used for cabinet- and lute-making to respect the individuality of each piece of wood it’s carved from. This re-edition continues that emphasis on timber; it’s created from solid canaletto , with the chair’s signature split backrest establishing it as a true original. It is finished with a choice of fabric or leather upholstery and is a tribute to considered, timeless design – an ethos built into Tacchini’s own DNA.
