Francesco Binfaré

Francesco Binfarè (1939-) was one of the great protagonists of Italian design of the second half of the twentieth century, although his role remained behind the scenes for a long time. The first part of his peculiar professional path is linked to Cassina, a company he joined in 1963 on the initiative of Cesare Cassina who assigned him the role of creative driving force within the company. His role soon took shape in the management of relationships with external designers, whom he accompanied throughout the entire process from an initial project idea to the finished product. Starting from 1966 he also exercised this role in parallel for the newly formed C&B Italia (today's B&B Italia), founded by Cesare Cassina together with Piero Busnelli: as director of the Binfarè Research Center he was the protagonist of the entire first phase of C&B production, contributing to the creation of masterpieces such as the Up armchair by Gaetano Pesce, his great friend. Binfarè, always alien to the rigid functionalist dictates of Modernism, promoted and helped designers who prefigured the bold experimentalism of Radical Design, from Mario Bellini to Paolo Deganello. In 1973, with the separation between Cassina and C&B, he moved to the helm of the Cesare Cassina Research Centre, and from here he took care of the development of the brand for almost twenty years with particular attention also towards communication and the launch of products, protagonists of large installations in occasion of the Salone del Mobile. At the beginning of the 90s he began a career as a designer on his own and was called to work for Edra by Massimo Morozzi, art director of the brand. Binfarè has created many of the most famous and appreciated sofas of the Tuscan brand, from the Standard model to the Flap or On The Rocks, all of which have become huge international bestsellers thanks to their non-conformist shapes that deconstruct and recreate the classic concept of the sofa. His journey culminates in the recognition of a Compasso d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement in 2022, a fitting tribute to a key figure who remained in the shadows for too long.