B&B Italia: 60 years of future, and the future as method

Industry and creativity have always been remarkably at home in the company founded in 1966 by the visionary Piero Ambrogio Busnelli as C&B, a joint venture between Cassina and Busnelli. It is precisely this industrial approach that made unprecedented design freedom possible. Each product is backed by the work of the Research & Development Center, the evolution of materials, the precision of production processes, and an ongoing dialogue with some of the leading figures in international design, who have all helped build a legacy of design capable of spanning eras without losing its relevance. 

B&B Italia did not just revolutionize the way furniture is produced; it also changed the way it is presented. Oliviero Toscani’s images, the photographic campaigns, the installations, and the power of its communications helped make the brand stand out in contemporary culture even before it became a market leader. Furnishings became ideas, symbols, and narratives – a language still spokenworldwide today. From private homes to hotels, from offices to public spaces, and through international contract projects, B&B Italia exports a distinct idea of contemporaneity, one capable of engaging with different cultures without renouncing its own identity. 

It is no surprise, then, that to celebrate its sixtieth anniversary, the company – today Gruppo B&B Italia and, since 2018, a part of the Flos B&B Italia Group, a global leader in high-end furnishings and lighting for both residential and contract markets, with a cultural heritage rooted in Europe and brands including Flos, B&B Italia, Maxalto, Arclinea, Azucena, Audo, and Lumens – has chosen to avoid the rhetoric of commemoration. Before & Beyond, an editorial project curated by Gianluigi Ricuperati and Maurizio Cilli, together with an exhibition in the Milan showroom designed by Formafantasma, does not present a sequence of dates but a cluster of insights, images, archives, works, and personal accounts. Rather than celebrating an anniversary, the project recovers the editorial and experimental spirit that has accompanied the company’s growth from the very beginning, entwining the revolution in communication with the revolution in making. It is a deliberately nonlinear narrative that perfectly reflects the brand’s DNA: always looking to the future without forgetting what made every step forward possible.