B&B Italia was founded in 1966, the entrepreneurial vision of Piero Ambrogio Busnelli whose groundbreaking furniture company tapped into the cultural pulse of design. Headquartered in Novedrate, Como, in a building designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers in 1971, the company has built its success on the ability to represent contemporary culture and to sense and anticipate trends with awarded collections that respond to how we live. B&B Italia’s research and innovation represents an essential segment of Italian design history, based on the union of creativity, innovation and industrial know-how, and the production of timeless products designed to last a lifetime.
In the early years, that vision of modernism was carried through by designers such as Marco Zanuso. His Lombrico sofa became a new paradigm for public spaces. In true 1960s style, elastic fabrics hugged the forms of Series UP by Gaetano Pesce, later inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame. Then Camaleonda and Le Bambole by Mario Bellini. A revolutionary product with a now infamous advertising campaign by Oliviero Toscani, Le Bambole won the Compasso d'Oro in 1979, the most important award in the field of Italian industrial design. By 1976, B&B Italia opened its first mono brand store in New York, in 1978 the B&B Italia Contract Division was founded, and in 1979, their presence in Asia was launched with B&B Italia Japan.
Today B&B Italia is a global luxury furniture brand known for modern, iconic designs and innovative technology. With all collections focusing on durable, premium materials for long-lasting luxury, emphasising quality craftsmanship to reduce environmental impact, the company embarked on an Outdoor Collection expansion in 2025, including new modular seating and dining pieces from Antonio Citterio. B&B Italia focuses on high-end indoor/outdoor collections, with a strong international presence and a new, specialised outdoor furniture showroom in Sydney.
Certain products are born in the future, Camaleonda is one of them... it stays alive because Camaleonda does not have a form that nails it in a frame of time, it still shows possibilities.
Mario Bellini, designer
B&B Italia Goes Outdoors
In 1975, B&B Italia established its first outdoor division with the launch of Compagnia delle Filippine. Working with long-term collaborators Afra and Tobia Scarpa, the collection mixed the traditional weaving techniques found in the Philippines with cutting-edge Italian design, setting the foundation for a new vision of outdoor furniture. When B&B Italia began further developing the collection in 2007, the focus again was innovation, materials and manufacturing know-how that would translate to the harsher realities of the climate. In collaboration with Milan-based Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola, the Canasta collection marked B&B Italia’s reentry into the outdoor world. Today, the brand’s most loved and iconic pieces have joined the collection and new designs continue to expand the range.
B&B Italia’s innovative Research & Development Centre
Since its beginnings in 1966, research and development has been the modus operandi of everything from the designs B&B Italia creates, to the way in which the group talks to the world. This strength in research and innovation defines the B&B Italia DNA. At the heart of the company is its internal R&D Centre, fuelled by long-term relationships with international designers: Antonio Citterio, Mario Bellini, Gaetano Pesce, Naoto Fukasawa, Robert Palomba and Ludovica Serafini, Patricia Urquiola, Barber Osgerby, Jeffrey Bernett, and many others, creating their unique design language.
The company has built its success on the revolutionary technology of manufacturing sofas and chairs. The cold-foamed polyurethane injection technology and metal framing can create all the shapes B&B Italia wants without limiting the creativity. Some of their most technically complex products, like the Moon-System by Zaha Hadid, would not have been possible without this technology.
B&B Italia is known for pushing the technology envelope and their research department is key to every new project. The effort and expense involved also makes their designs much harder to copy and involves years of development and often travel to the places where new skills can be learnt and developed further. Complex designs include the Canasta outdoor collection designed by Patricia Urquiola. The XL woven pattern inspired by the pattern of classic Viennese straw, involved reinterpreting the handcrafted technique through an industrial approach. Accompanying Urquiola to the Philippines where the detail and shape were explored, they worked directly with artisans to finalise every detail then finalised back in Italy. This level of research underpins the innovation invested in each project.
Sustainability shapes new and iconic collections
A leader in quality, design excellence, research and innovation, B&B Italia develops products characterised by superior recyclability and disassembly properties, sustainable materials and design processes, to support design that is built on quality, function, beauty and importantly product longevity for both indoors and out.
Products are designed so that every element can be easily dismantled and materials have another lifecycle. They incorporate recycled fibres from PET bottles that are also fully recyclable, quality wood from FSC approved sustainable forestry and 100% recycled waste wood. Key pieces include the Mirto folding chairs by Antonia Citterio. Designed in light aluminium, a material that is infinitely recyclable, with a seat and back made from Batyline® Canatex mesh produced from innovative sustainable hemp fibre that replaces the polypropylene weaves traditionally used for the outdoors.
While the classic Le Bambole family of chairs and sofas designed by Mario Bellini in 1972, and now in production for over 50 years, has been reimagined with sustainable materials. Giving the design structure, recycled polyurethane foam and thermoplastic elastomers are added to shape the geometry and define comfort and breathability, all sheathed by an undercover derived from recycled PET. These choices mean that every item in today’s Le Bambole collection cam be completely disassembled and recycled.
B&B Italia assesses the lifecycle of every product in the collection, supporting leading Italian and international test laboratories to meet the brand’s continuous quest for excellence and innovation, quality and sustainability.