Tecno. La fabbrica del progetto

Tecno is an industrial company founded in 1953, based in Milan, global design capital, in the historic Porta Garibaldi Excise Buildings. Tecno has blended design and innovation from the beginning, involving all stages of design, from the product to the installation. The distinctive characteristic of Tecno’s offer is quality: the quality of good workmanship in furnishings produced on the basis of sound know-how and that of technological innovation. Tecno: from craftsmanship to mass production Tecno Spa is a furnishing company founded in 1953 by Osvaldo and Fulgenzio Borsani with a deep-rooted tradition of craftsmanship. Though already known to the public in the Thirties and Forties, Tecno’s official activity began at the start of the Fifties. Its path was destined to cross with that of emerging Italian design and its success to be founded on a marriage of the culture of “getting things done” and technology. A stable corporate reality and recognised name in the world of contemporary design, Tecno is currently based in Milan, in the Excise Buildings in Porta Garibaldi, in keeping with the journey that began back in 1956, when the company opened its first registered office in Milan, in via Montenapoleone. With the support of an efficient, extensive network of company showrooms and dealers, Tecno is present in Italy and in major international capitals such as Paris, London, Madrid, New York and Sydney. Tecno and design Tecno has combined design and innovation from its inception: product design, but also communication design, affirming an image of itself with a strong and decisive character. Functional and long-lasting, Tecno products – indisputably icons of Italian design – possess a recognisable and marked aesthetic that marries elegant form to the evocation of technology expressed in its mechanical components. The most recent products, though faithful to the traditional design trajectory, feature a contemporary character expressing Tecno’s capacity for interaction with variations in today’s lifestyle. The Tecno image, built starting from the brand conceived by Roberto Mango in 1954, on the occasion of Tecno’s first collection at the 10th Triennale Exhibition, has always played a crucial role, on a par with that of the product: communication design has been entrusted to a series of outstanding partners, from Enrico Ciuti to Bob Noorda (1968-69), Salvatore Gregorietti and Giulio Confalonieri, before passing in 1972 to the Centro Progetti Tecno, a design centre within the company that handles corporate communication together with marketing. Tecno: from product to project From the outset, founder Osvaldo Borsani had conceived a “global design strategy” encompassing all players in the design system – developer, manufacturer and distributor – as part of a single process, involving the designer in all stages of planning, from the product to the installation. Faithful to this philosophy, Tecno has never stopped offering its dual nature: producer of stylish designer items (intended for homes and office environments) and, at the same time, consultant in the execution of custom, turnkey projects on a large scale. Tecno’s experience is directed especially towards collective and work environments in which there is a constant encounter with complex design issues concerning technological, typological and formal definition. The headquarters of the European Parliament, the French railway stations, the British Museum renovated by the architect Norman Foster, the London Bridge station and, in Italy, the supply of furnishings for the branch offices of Unicredit, the BMW dealerships, the new offices of Banca Intesa: these are just some of the “special projects” completed by Tecno. The world of Tecno Architects, companies and facility managers are Tecno clients. Buyers and technicians with whom the development of the project is shared, from concept to execution, providing the expertise and experience acquired over more than sixty years of activity. Tecno quality One of the distinctive characteristics of Tecno’s offer is quality: the quality of good workmanship in furnishings produced on the basis of sound know-how and scrupulous selection of materials, but also of technological innovation, an essential requirement for all contemporary design projects. The credibility and reliability of the company, both in managing complex projects and in guaranteeing the whole service, are by now historic characteristics of the company, which is renewed on a daily basis by its present enterprising management.