The Bottoni forest

It is no accident that the exhibition route featuring interiors created by Zanotta to narrate its production past and present should resemble a forest.

This approach was chosen in homage to Piero Bottoni and a re-edition of his Fenice table, designed for Villa Muggia in 1936, made possible thanks to drawings from his archives. The designer played a key part in the history of this company which, in the early 1970s, started including in its catalogue a number of classics designed in the 1930s by architects of the Italian Rationalist Movement such as Giuseppe Terragni, Gabriele Mucchi and Bottoni himself. These pieces had never gone into mass production because developed as one-offs for specific interiors.

The updating of Fenice was not a fast process and called for lengthy research into the advanced technology required to manufacture such a large design that also had to be easily moved. Zanotta opted to produce it in cementitious resin as the surface of this material reproduces the texture of the original design, combined with Polimex® for the internal structure. Other new designs include the June chair designed by Frank Rettenbacher to accompany his Santiago dining table for Zanotta. With a gently faceted form and geometric outline, its metal legs echo the Emil table and are braced with reinforcing steel wire, a recurrent theme in his designs for the company. The Austrian designer also developed the Ivo and Ido stools, inspired by Zanotta’s classic Giotto stool, which celebrated its 40th birthday in 2015. These are simple and robust pieces in natural oak or walnut with steel wire reinforcement.

The lovely Niobe coffee-table collection by Federica Capitani draws on the timeless quality of marble slabs to create surfaces that can be combined to complement conversation spaces. The slab is laid on a minimal structure and resembles a river pebble split in half, with a flat top and a softly curved underside.

12–17 April 2016

Zanotta
Pad 16 stand A23/B16
Salone del Mobile
Rho Fiera Milano