Porada

Design made of pure, uncompromising geometry can be utterly exciting. It can be used to seek a style for a timeless habitat, where contemporary lines live with traditional materials shaped by processes that still have all the unique properties of real craftsmanship, to generate a production range that is typically Italian, capable of dialoguing with the different trends at work in design today. That is what is being manufactured by Porada, the firm established in 1968 by Luigi Allievi, who set it out to pursue the chair production first started in 1948 and expand it into other fields, assisted by his sons. Excellent quality and considerable experience in working with wood rapidly gave this company a well-defined identity that is now expressed by simply elegant products, designed to contribute a touch of class to the domestic landscape, the better to interpret the requirements of everyday living. The major step of expanding to a more articulated production of occasional furniture started with the firm's partnership with such designers as the architects Alberio and Cerbaro and with Martino Perego, leading to the Linea 91 and the Hoppo collections. Keeping faith with the use of solid wood, the firm embarked on production that now also involves other materials: steel, glass and plastics. This soon generated new experiments that started with the partnership with Tarcisio Colzani, whose more important pieces include the successful Cuccagna system of equipped columns for every room in the house and elsewhere. In response to its desire to generate evolved collections and translate the company's own tenets into expressions of style, Porada started creating highly functional pieces with a refined design, involving a series of designers including Marconato & Zappa, Studio Opera, Studio 28, Giovanna Azzarello, Mandelli & Selva and Giuseppe Viganò. Thanks to their contributions of skill and know-how Porada was able to consolidate a medium to high market position. Its ability to find the right balance between form and function in every object is unquestionably the key to achieving renown with a broader and also international audience. Every item, for Porada, is developed considering how it will be used and for what: even the patterns that are an essential part of each design do not escape this rule. The company's extensive, heterogeneous range is immediately recognisable for the sheer craftsmanship of the joinery, which is normally in solid wood, for the obvious care that has been paid to details and for its ability to feature objects that are a distinct cut above passing fashions. There is an obvious elegance and evolution of taste here, but also something quite simply sober and uncomplicated, making every piece by Porada meant to last. The same applies to the pieces that are inspired by forms and patterns from a distant past: they all undergo that subtle dose of restyling that projects them into a timeless dimension and makes them rise to the status of eternally contemporary elements.