edra
Italy

Likewise the story of many other Italian companies
Edra's is the story of a family.

It is also the story of an understanding and of an intellectual and effective connivance between the owner, Valerio Mazzei - who currently runs the company with his sister Monica - and art director Massimo Morozzi. The latter is a well-known architect and designer, an exponent of the radical avant-garde in the second half of the sixties (co-founder in 1966 of the Florentine group Archizoom). Edra comes out in 1987 with the collection "I nuovissimi", consisting of pieces of furniture designed by young designers at their first attempts with mass production. This unconventional debut - made in Milan at the Marconi Gallery - aims at giving the precise image of a company that intends to explore creative potentials at an international level. Since then, Edra faces a rapid growth with strong increments, always following a very personal design-oriented course.

Over the years, its flair for talent-scouting allows Edra to gather around its project some of the most interesting personalities of the new design, such like Francesco Binfarè, the Brazilians Fernando and Humberto Campana, the Japanese Masanori Umeda, Alessandro Mendini, the Welsh Ross Lovegrove, Peter Traag, and of architecture, such as Zaha Hadid. Thanks to its flexible structure, Edra makes expert use of the skills which are present in the area and succeeds in developing innovatory products, revolutionizing in some instances the traditional production of padded furniture.

For each project, Edra always seeks the best solution, even borrowing technology from other sectors. The continuous, close dialogue between Valerio Mazzei, his "interface" Massimo Morozzi and the designers have produced some emblematic pieces which have become icons of contemporary design, such as Tatlin by Cananzi and Semprini, Flap by Francesco Binfaré, the series of flower-shaped armchairs by Masanori Umeda, the armchair Vermelha and the chair Favela by Fernando & Humberto Campana. Year after year, the collections have become richer and diversified, expressing and forerunning the most significant trends.

Thanks to Massimo Morozzi's art direction, they have always kept an uniform and identifiable stamp. The strong identity of the company is paradoxically represented by its diversities: all of them contribute to the creation of an original living landscape, which is functional and emotional, continuously evolving, independent from any style suggestions. Edra has been the first to use colour in a broad and structural manner, using also deep and bright shades. Without betraying its personality, Edra has shown itself to be capable either of experimenting advanced technologies and of making use of traditional processes and hand manufacturing, that give a unique quality to many of its pieces. Edra tries out innovatory materials such as polypropylene and poor ones such as cardboard and rope.

In upholstery, a sector taken care of by Monica Mazzei, risearch plays a great part, which goes from technical fabrics, such as High Speed, to traditional ones, such like velvet and leather, or fancy fabrics, always designed "ad hoc" and exclusively produced. "Paesaggi Italiani", the modular system consisting of furniture, walls and dividing back panels, created in 1995 by Massimo Morozzi and considered as the company backbone, continues its evolution with new structural finishes and components, such as the articulated joints, that - for the first time - allow a system to free itself from the constrictions of plane geometry and enter space three-dimensionally.

Its incisive presence and its brilliant and aggressive image correspond to the most advanced trends, thus permitting the system to take part to important exhibitions in Italy and abroad, and to furnish prestigious public and private areas.