Osvaldo Borsani

Osvaldo Borsani (1911-1985), entrepreneur and designer, made an important contribution to the birth and development of the Italian design movement. Born in Varedo into a family of carpenters from the Brianza area, he began working in his father's atelier from an early age and giving life to furnishings that were still influenced by the highly decorative tradition. In the meantime, he continued his studies at the Milan Polytechnic and in 1953 founded his own company, Tecno, whose showroom was based in Milan in via Montenapoleone. With Tecno Borsani adopts a completely different style, the culmination of a long research, made up of flexible furnishings capable of bending and changing position, which knew how to respond to the need to save space that characterized many homes in the boom years. The greatest example of this trend was his P40 armchair, now exhibited in many of the world's leading design museums. An enlightened entrepreneur, over the years Borsani also opened his Tecno to collaborations with other designers and participated in the foundation of the Ottagono magazine, which had the aim of spreading the culture of design in Italy. In 2018 Borsani's work was celebrated with a major retrospective at the Milan Triennale.