Emme Italia Archive.
Under the sign of metal.
A library featuring more than 200 titles covering the history of design and architecture, design management, contract furnishing, office design, graphics and communication, materials, as well as monographs dedicated to artists, architects and designers.
A periodicals archive with more than 100 publications from the 1980s to the present day, including both specialised office furniture magazines and general-interest design magazines, with selected content focused on workplace design, including: Ufficiostile, Us, Office Layout, Habitat ufficio, Domus, Interni, Of Arch, Ottagono, Abitare.
A selection of technical documents, catalogues and communication materials from Emme Italia and the leading companies in the technical office furniture sector, dating from the 1970s to the 1990s, including: Bieffe, Bieffeplast, Zucor, Heron Parigi, Neolt, Elfe, Riefler, Mutoh.
Emme Italia office workstation, 1995
Genius Loci: corporate heritage
In the 1980s, Maurizio Barison worked on prototype development for Bieffe and Bieffplast. In the early 1990s, he became Technical Director of Zucor Tecnigrafi. In 1995, he founded Emme Italia. In 2001, after several years of activity in an anonymous rented workshop, Emme Italia moved its operational headquarters to one of the production areas previously occupied by the historic Bieffe and Bieffeplast facilities, which had been abandoned by the renowned company after production ceased and ownership was transferred to France.
Designed starting in the 1950s by the Padua-based urban planner Gabriele Scimemi for Bieffe, the area is of particular industrial and historical significance. These places saw the birth and growth of the drawing board, drafting machine and technical office furniture industries for designers from the 1950s onwards. Emme Italia chose to continue this virtuous relationship between place and industrial culture by establishing itself in that very same production area.
Components from Bieffe and Bieffeplast production
Emme Italia Archive: the origins of the project
Alessandro Barison has been collaborating with Emme Italia since 1997. In 2009, his Design Management project for the company received an honourable mention from the jury at the DME Award ceremony during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. The Design Management project was updated and relaunched in 2015, on the occasion of Emme Italia’s 20th anniversary. Among the project’s objectives was the enhancement of the company’s cultural and industrial heritage.
In 2017, the research project “Under the sign of metal” was launched, with the aim of investigating the historical and industrial processes that characterised the adoption of metal in furniture production, particularly in technical office furniture. In 2018, the exhibition “FRAMMENTI bieffe 1953 > 1999” was organised, focusing in particular on the use of metal in the production of technical office furniture by the historic Padua-based company.
In 2019, the survey and cataloguing of the available archive materials began. In 2020, the Emme Italia Archive finally became a reality, supporting the company’s research activities and serving the wider community.
Publications from the Emme Italia Archive
Under the sign of metal: the research project
The research project aims to investigate the historical and industrial processes that characterised the adoption of metal in furniture production, particularly in technical office furniture, and to explore the evolution of office spaces throughout history, especially during the 20th century.
Thanks to the support of the materials and documents already preserved within the Emme Italia Archive, and with the aim of expanding the collection, primarily through paper-based documentation, the Archive seeks to become a point of reference not only for the company’s internal research activities, but also for students, researchers, professionals and craftspeople wishing to further explore the use of metal as a material for furniture production and the evolution of the office environment.
The project “Under the sign of metal” is curated by Sara Bertoldo, coordinated by Simone Bellan and Alessandro Barison. The Emme Italia Archive is open to evaluating the acquisition or donation of private collections related to the subjects covered by the project. The Archive occupies a mezzanine area of approximately 40 square metres within the company’s production facility.
Company Profile
For us, a catalog is not a simple marketing tool, it is a way of telling about ourselves and our approach to work. Our company profile tells Emme Italia’s 30 years of passion in the production of metal furniture for school, office and contract.