SCENE MAKER

Italian architect Antonio Citterio reflects on his enduring collaboration with Maxalto and how far the furniture brand has come since its early beginnings

- Hong Xinying

A vision of a family’s elegant Parisian apartment, with new furnishings to suit their evolving needs—this is the key image that has stuck with Italian architect Antonio Citterio throughout the three decades he has designed products for Italian furniture brand Maxalto. “This Parisian apartment has stayed in our [minds]; we always photographed the collection in the same home for 25 years,” says Citterio, who is also the brand’s longtime artistic director.

The sister label of furniture giant B&B Italia, Maxalto was launched in the mid-seventies. In 1995, Giorgio Busnelli took over the reins of the company from Piero Busnelli, his father and the founder of B&B Italia. In that same year, Giorgio enlisted Citterio to relaunch Maxalto with a new vision that has endured since then.