Balance with strong gestures
Anna Moldenhauer: Daniela, when you decided to join the company, you were in the middle of your law studies. What made you take this step back then?
Daniela Fantini: The bond with the company that my father Giovanni and my uncle Ersilio founded has been very strong since I was a child. Our home was directly connected to the company premises and as a girl I often accompanied my father on my bike through the factory halls when he was checking the electroplating equipment, for example. The company was his passion, he worked every day of the week for Fantini's success. In the mid-seventies, he met two architects by chance, Paolo Pedrizzetti and Davide Mercatali. They designed "I Balocchi", faucets in bold colours and with voluminous shapes. With Fantini, they found a manufacturer who dared to implement this idea. Until then, all bathroom fittings in the industry had been similar, so this moment was decisive for Fantini. Up to that point, the mixer was not a design element, it had no identity. I joined the company in 1982, at the height of the I Balocchi series. The spirit of optimism attracted me and I felt that this design was decisive for the company's future path. When my father died suddenly in 1990, I had already been involved in the operations for ten years. During that time, I absorbed the appreciation and passion that my father and uncle brought to the company. Nevertheless, it was a big step to take over, because my father was the heart and soul of the company. In the meantime, my cousins Luigi and Domizio and my sister Luciana are also associated with Fantini. Likewise, our path is shaped by the extraordinary team we work with. It takes a bit effort to choose the right designs and collaborations. As a result, many of Fantini's products are now part of permanent museum exhibitions, such as the "Calibro" faucet by Davide Mercatali and Paolo Pedrizzetti, which can be seen at MomA in New York City. Likewise, the fittings have been awarded numerous design prizes, such as the Compasso d'Oro ADI in 2020 for the "AK/25" mixer tap designed by Paik Sun Kim from the Boffi-Fantini Aboutwater collection. Piero Lissoni, one of Italy's most famous international architects and designers, has been working with us since the late 1990s. In short, my job is the best in the world for me.
Fantini's ambition has always been to design something new. What does a fitting design need today to fulfil this?
Daniela Fantini: For us, partnerships with companies and creative people are essential. In this collaboration, handmade and artistic fittings are created, such as the Venezia series made of Murano glass by Venini. Each element is unique. We are always looking for original details, new approaches, experiments, both in design and in production.
Will there be a new cooperation for the Salone del Mobile 2023?
Daniela Fantini: For Milano Design Week we are planning to open a new chapter in our very successful cooperation "Aboutwater" with Boffi, which we started ten years ago with Naoto Fukasawa as designer. Shown in an exciting installation by Piero Lissoni! I can't reveal more yet, but you can be curious and you are all welcome to visit us at our Milan showroom!
The environmentally friendly approach is a core aspect for Fantini - can you give us an example of how Fantini produces sustainably?
Daniela Fantini: We incorporate sustainability into every step of production, it is a principle that guides our actions at every level. So all our components come from Italy, ideally from within 50 kilometres of our headquarters on Lake Orta. In this way, we both reduce our carbon footprint and save on high transport costs. We also believe that a Fantini product should basically last forever. We are not interested in following a moment, a fashion. The fittings are durable in both material and design.
What I find interesting - the fittings are timeless in design, but still special, bold in expression, colour and material. You also find a balance in the design with strong gestures. How do you achieve this?
Daniela Fantini: Every project is different, the balance comes from the exchange, the interaction between Fantini and the designers. The products are developed together so that they fit Fantini's DNA in every detail. We also constantly invest in research and are always open to new approaches, be it in design, manufacturing or technology.
What do you wish for the coming period?
Daniela Fantini: Due to the pandemic, in 2020; we can’t received the guest in our Casa Fantini Boutique hotel so now I would be happy to welcome more people from all over the world again. In addition, we are working in parallel on numerous projects such as "100 wells: Fantini for Africa" - the construction of a regional water supply in Masango, Burundi and "S.A.I.L.I.N.G", a scientific-photographic project in collaboration with the National Research Council of Italy, to monitor water quality in Lake Maggiore and Lake Orta. We believe that through partnerships with companies that share our vision, ethics and idea of design, we can create interesting synergies and innovations.
Fantini @ Milan Design Week
Via Solferino 18
20121 Milan
Opening hours:
18 to 22 April 2023: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
23 April 2023: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Since 2011, the Aboutwater brand has embodied the shared vision of Boffi and Fantini, who unite their design expertise under the label. In Milan, Aboutwater presents three successful product families, all of which have been revised: "PIPE" by Marcel Wanders, "ECLIPSE" by Studio Charlie and "GARDEN" by Piero Lissoni.
