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Branca Chairs - Something of how they are made

The Branca Chair by Industrial Facility for Mattiazzi

The branches of a tree that turn, twist, meet and branch off. According to designer Sam Hecht of Industrial Facility, this is the critical analogy for the Branca Chair.

But it also had to embody all the functional attributes we expect of a chair in the modern world - to be comfortable, to have armrests, to fit under a table, to be light enough to carry, and to stack for easy shipping and storage. The ingredients of the chair are a combination of highly complex parts, which are made possible with CNC machinery (most notably Mattiazzi's eight axis robot), traditional shaping and finishing by hand.

“I observed that the power of the robot, the repetition of the machine and the skills of the craftsmen already have synchronised relationships at Mattiazzi where each process is as carefully selected as the wood blocks that were to be shaped”, says Hecht.

For the past thirty years, Nevio and Fabbiano Mattiazzi's obsession with wood production has led them to produce furniture for some of the great Italian furniture brands. Over the years they have kept their expertise and quality sharp by continually investing in the latest machinery, in combination with a craftsmanlike attitude. They have now become a company of rarity in being able to shape wood as if it were plastic, and where ever-greater challenges are seen as their own form of research and development.

This beautiful video - made by Industrial Facility and directed by Juriaan Booij - shows you something of how the Branca Chair is made.

Video and text courtesy of Industrial Facility © http://www.industrialfacility.co.uk