Paolo Castelli weaves luxury with creative expression for their furniture collections

The Italian brand and global leader in furniture design, Paolo Castelli S.p.A continues to accentuate contemporaneity in innovation through its bespoke furniture design and lighting design collections. Born of a 140-year-long legacy, Paolo Castelli, under the leadership of its art director and CEO, Mr Paolo Castelli, manages large turnkey furnishing projects in the hospitality design sector, high-end residential projects, commercial spaces, and museums. With more than 80 employees and partners, the luxury Italian brand has its headquarters in Ozzano dell Emilia, Bologna, showrooms in Milan and in Paris along with a Marine division in Carrara, Italy. The iconic Italian brand has always been known for its value addition to any space through a mix of traditional design approaches married to modern aesthetics. It interweaves quality, uniqueness, and in-depth material research to fabricate its products, setting it apart as a brand with unmatched finesse and an unchallenged legacy.

Castelli was born in Bologna in 1966 and holds a degree in Political Sciences. Hosting a strong creative force, Castelli is also a specialised lighting designer, who continues to enrich the 'Made in Italy' experience through the Italian brand’s lighting and furnishings. Following the simple mantra of imagining, designing, and producing, Castelli creates his own collections that are sensitised towards consumer needs, trend demands, and ethical manufacturing practices. "When I have to put on the hat of the brand's manager, first I have to think about what can sell the products, second, what I personally like and third, honesty to the clients and their needs," says Castelli.

Over the years, the brand has gained global recognition while presenting at major design fairs including the Salone del Mobile, the international lighting exhibition Euroluce, and the international furniture design fair Imm Cologne. On the occasion of Maison&Objet 2022 in the city, Paolo Castelli previewed their Imane and the Ipanema furniture series from the Inspiration collection, as a recital of a fresh chapter in the Italian brand’s path. While Imane is Paolo Castelli’s first dedicated outdoor collection belonging to the larger Greenkiss collection, Ipanema is a living furniture collection encompassing compositional characteristics and minimalism.

The Imane collection comprises upholstered seats and coffee tables for the outdoors, created using natural materials and highly skilled precision work. Paolo Castelli designed the collection in collaboration with the iconic industrial designer Hubert de Malherbe and the iconic architect and interior designer Thierry Lemaire. The Imane sofas are characterised by a linear structure in solid iroko wood, brushed, and stained in natural oil with a refined and essential design. The use of iroko wood adds resistance to the furniture pieces befitting them for different weather conditions. Furthermore, theImane coffee table in solid iroko wood offers soft and expressive lines with the look and feel of traditional Japanese furnishing.

The latest living collection by Paolo Castelli is the creative brainchild of the architect and designer Theirry Lemaire, as part of the Paolo Castelli Inspiration line. Consisting of the Ipanema sofa, armchair and coffee table, the Ipanema collection is designed as a tribute to the sophisticated and timeless expressiveness of French furnishings. The three-seater sofa and the Ipanema armchair interpret maximum comfort through rigorous but delicate lines, with a full-bodied structure in a metallic frame, a matt black satin nickel finish, and matt gold feet. Alongside the bespoke sofa and armchair designs, two Ipanema low tables complete the timeless elegance of the seaters with their essential and opulent presence.

The Italian brand, under the leadership of Mr Paolo Castelli, plans to set new milestones in contemporary design, with the aim of bringing more refinement and finesse to the market. The brand plans on presenting new ideas and designs at the next edition of the Salone del Mobile following a great success through their display at Salone del Mobile 2022. For the illustrious design fair, Paolo Castelli displayed an extravagant museum-like booth, hosting an assortment of the brand's novelties. The booth was designed as an opulent dream house by the Lake Como, displaying the Ama Sofa, Ottomana chairs, Petra bookcase and the Ellipse round table among other products. Not just furniture pieces, the brand also plans on experimenting with lighting design and solutions over the coming years. “We are not technical. We are designers and if you like something, we will find a way to make it,” concludes Castelli.