Bottega Ghianda

The new Milan Shop of Bottega Ghianda, a magical place dedicated to a love for wood and artisanal know-how, opened its doors in Brera, designed by its artistic director Michele De Lucchi. The shop is a delightful little box of about ninety sqm characterised by a warm and simple elegance the details.

  Hand-finished, gray Milano-coloured walls rise from the edges of jet-black granite flooring with a delicate, almost calligraphic gravure running through it. Bottega Ghianda’s products can be found in their exposition on shelves, racks and vertical stands similar to those of a museum; they are illuminated discretely by small spherical dark-bronze lamps and the light cast by spotlights on the ceiling. Paleblue linen curtains further soften this visual ensemble. It may feel like an art gallery or even a jewellery store: but wood takes the place of gold and splendour exudes exclusively from objects that bear witness to a mastery of production techniques. Each piece, a unique creation that’s always the result of manual endeavour, is offered — exhibited, caressed, wrapped in a special package, and finally entrusted to the hands of the customer... — with all the meticulousness of a ritual.

  Over time the shop will host all of the creations of Bottega Ghianda’s artisanal production: the work of historic designers like Gae Aulenti, Mario Bellini, Cini Boeri, the Magnussons, and propositions from the new designers who enthusiastically accepted Michele De Lucchi’s invitation to contribute to a tradition that’s admired the world over. Bottega Ghianda is part of the narrow circle of workshops at the forefront of the art of fine-woodworking and cabinetmaking in the world. It was founded two centuries ago and has established itself over the course of generations as an Italian excellence in this form of craftsmanship — and particularly in its most refined tradition, ebanistry. It has cultivated a precise vocation: the mastery of its craftsmen enables exceptional designers to transform their creative vision into reality. It is only the truly peerless skill of each of the fine-woodworking masters that mak es it possible for wood to take the forms conceptualised by leading architects, designers and artists. They have always entrusted their ideas to Bottega Ghianda with the utmost confidence, in the knowledge that only here can they find the hands and knowledge they require.

This autumn two exhibitions were dedicated to Pierluigi Ghianda, the Maestro who died in 2015: one was held in Tokyo at the Italian Culture Institute and the other – curated by Milan’s Triennale – was at the Villa Reale in Monza. Romeo Sozzi, founder and designer of Promemoria, an ebanista by descent and personal vocation, set himself the task in 2015 of enabling Bottega Ghianda to continue its work and helping it to grow, while maintaining a profound respect for its tradition: this was the reason he and his three sons Stefano, Davide and Paolo bought the business from Pierluigi Ghianda shortly before he passed away. By directly taking the baton of a noble history from him, Romeo Sozzi has ensured that Bottega Ghianda’s longstanding artisans can continue their virtuoso work. The pieces that are in production — tables and bookcases, lecterns and frames, trays, boxes, étagères and travel items — are and will continue to be the ones that were produced over time, between the Thirties and the present, and the ones conceived by new designers that current artistic director Michele De Lucchi has invited to collaborate with Bottega Ghianda.

Bottega Ghianda
via Formentini 9, Milan