Manufacturing Reawakens
Lighting showroom Bella Figura has discovered a further advantage to only working with small family businesses for its high-quality Italian manufacturing: now that the government there has given the green light to gently restart the economy, its glass and metal workshops in Murano and Tuscany have been among the first to be able to get back to work, adapting to new safety measures. Pictured above left is an ‘Aviary’ pendant, whose metal frame is hand-beaten and hand-painted in Italy.
Northern Italy’s larger manufacturing powerhouses, similarly laid low by Covid-19, are also waking up again. Factories such as Flexform’s in Brianza, north of Milan (pictured above right), have been able to reopen after seven weeks of lockdown, while Rubelli’s Lake Como mill opened on 4 May. Ceccotti Collezioni is also manufacturing again, with new products already being shipped. Flexform says it has “resumed work as passionately as ever”, taking all necessary precautions to work safely.
Cautious easing of lockdown restrictions in the UK have also meant that some British manufacturers have taken up tools again, including Porta Romana, which has announced that its workshops were back in operation on 11 May. And some businesses have managed to work through without closing at all, including Collier Webb’s foundry.
Bella Figura, Ground Floor, Centre Dome
Ceccotti Collezioni, First Floor, Centre Dome
Collier Webb, Second Floor, South Dome
Flexform, Ground Floor, South Dome
Porta Romana, Ground Floor, Centre & South Domes
