The Creative Genius that is Claudio Bitetti

If you ever for one moment thought of furniture as, well ‘just furniture’, think again.  If your view is that it is usually practical but mundane, how wrong you are.

Let us introduce you to the creative genius that is Italian designer Claudio Bitetti.

Claudio Bitetti
Claudio Bitetti

In the hands of Bitetti a bed is not just a bed. It becomes a ‘big hug’. His cabinets are not only practical places to store things – they also allow your own creative genius out to play; to become a place of doodles, or somewhere to celebrate a music legend. A bookcase is not simply a set of shelves, it’s also an elegant ‘ladder’ pirouetting skywards.

Notes cabinet by Claudio Bitetti
Notes Cabinet

So where to start?

Claudio Bitetti – from the beginning

Claudio Bitetti was born in Aosta, in North West Italy, and studied at the faculty of Architecture in Milan where he graduated in Industrial Design.

His work as a designer includes collaborations with some big brand names including Alivar, Dilmos, EmmeBi, Minotti, Mogg, Movelight, Now-editions, Opinion Ciatti and Sturm Und Plastic.

He is also a hot dab hand at transforming commercial interiors and private homes.

Albirrificio – interiors by Claudio Bitetti
GM: Claudio, we first came across your work with Italian brand Mogg at Salone del Mobile and we were blown away by how different it was. It was impossible to walk past the stand and not do a double-take.  Your furniture pieces are always practical but also ‘poetic’. There is a sense of theatre about them. We want to ask how does your brain work? Can you describe to us your approach to furniture design?

CB: First of all I want to say thank you for the compliments and for your interest in my work. About my approach to furniture design: you have got it, that is “there is a sense of theatre about them”.

Actually my projects are ‘stories’; and the shape, the materials and their function are just a way to make them visible.

Big Hugg bed by Claudio Bitetti
Big Hug bed
GM: Your innovative Big Hug bed for Mogg is a show stopping piece. A bed where the frame can be moulded by the owner. What was your idea here?

CB: My idea of the Big Hug Bed was born from Mies Van Der Rohe’s question: “is the form a real aim? Is it not rather the result of shaping?”

So starting from that, I drew a ‘shaping bed’ where the shape is exactly the result of its making. A making that allows you to change it to your liking, moulding it as if it was clay.  As in a big hug.

From a functional point of view the bed is made of padded removable fabric… bla bla bla…

GM: In 2015 you launched your King and Queen stools/side-tables. Why the choice of material here (and are you a chess player?)?
King & Queen Side tables/Stools

Cork. It is a completely natural raw material with unique properties which gives it an unrivalled character. It is light, impermeable to liquids and gases, elastic and compressible…

For the second question, no I’m not a chess player, actually I don’t like any competitive play.

GM:  Notes, your cabinet, drew much attention at Salone in 2016. This is a piece that, for us, definitely invites you to have fun. It is almost ‘theatre meets furniture’ and we love it. Please tell us about it.

Notes Cabinet by Claudio Bitetti

CB: Actually theatre includes different and several form of arts, through which it is represented as a story, a drama. In effect if we analyse the word it derives from the Greek verb drao = I act. Precisely, to act, as action and feat.

As in Ruggero Pierantoni’s: “nella nera navata di una chiesa sconsacrata lacera un foglio bianco” (“in the black nave of a deconsecrated church he tears a white sheet”) or Lorenzo Cherubini: “vorrei che questa pagina tornasse bianca per scriverti ti amo” (“I would like this page to turn blank to write I love you”), or also Italo Calvino: “ogni tanto mi accorgo che la penna ha preso a correre sul foglio come da sola, e io a correrle dietro” (“every now and then I notice that the pen has started running on the sheet as if by itself, and I run after it”)

…. what else to motivate a sensational series of containers covered with overlapping and interchangeable white papers?

GM: Hotline, your 2018 dining table, has a very graphic look. What was your inspiration/idea with this?
Hotline dining table by Claudio Bitetti
Hotline Dining table

CB: Picasso used to say: “Nature is a thing, Painting is another thing”.  In this way he emphasized the fact that painting should not give in to nature’s realism, but it must be able to transcend it and develop on a parallel level.

Making this quote mine, I drew a table showing its fourth dimension and from any perspective you see it, in order to perceive not only the spatial dimension but especially the temporal one.

Hotline by Claudio Bitetti

Therefore, concluding, Hotline is the synthesis of a table in elementary geometrical lines which you can’t see simultaneously in a classic table.

GM: Adelaide, your shelving unit for Mogg, reaches skywards with its beautiful Iroko wood or metal shelves, spaced around a central pole. We love its creative simplicity and style. How did the idea for this design arrive with you?
Mogg Adelaide by Claudio Bitetti
Mogg Adelaide shelving

CB: Exactly, Adelaide is made of wood and metal. It is composed of a square turning base on which are fixed 13 ‘floors’ with two different sizes in an asymmetrical way.

Adelaide shelving by Claudio Bitetti

All this is with the aim to confirm that, if we increase the visible chaos, we are able to catch a critical limit of it. Suddenly it will decrease and we will see a new and perfect order. The concept of entropy.

GM: Taking you back to 2013 now, and your distinctive Zio Tom Collection. You chose to make it in beautiful reclaimed Larch. Why particularly Larch? And tell us about the decision to finish the interior and details in a choice of colours.
Zio Tom sideboard by Claudio Bitetti
Zio Tom sideboard

CB: I decided to use ancient Larch because I wanted to give my work an external aspect that was apparently: random, dynamic and poor.

Zio Tom dining table by Claudio Bitetti
Zio Tom Dining Table

But I finished the interiors and details with a choice of colours to underline these concepts: appearance, causality, essence and randomness.

GM: Bringing us up to date, your latest design for Mogg is the fabulous Giunone sideboard. It’s an incredibly practical, stylish and useful sideboard, and in true Claudio Bitetti style you chose to create something a little different with the base.
Giunone sideboard by Claudio Bitetti
Giunone sideboard

CB: Absolutely yes!  I had in mind to create a fabulous, incredibly practical, stylish and useful sideboard; in a true Claudio Bitetti style… and in addition I wanted to upset the usual hierarchical order, that is: Body – Accessories – Base.

Giunone sideboard by Claudio Bitetti

 

GM: Can you tell us about any current projects? What can we expect to see next from Claudio Bitetti?

CB: Right now, as usual, I continue to work on new projects for the next Salone del Mobile, especially for Mogg. Moreover I’ve just finished drawing some wallpapers for the Italian brand Edizioni.  And returning to Salone del Mobile, I’ve also just started a collaboration for the launch of a new brand.

As an interior designer I’m working on the restyling of the theatre in the centre of Aosta and its connected coffee bar. Furthermore I’m designing a pub overlooking a wonderful green area.

I also work for a couple of my friends (she is an artist and he is a critic art reviewer) who asked me to transform a rural building into their home and studio.

What can you expect to see from Claudio Bitetti in the future? My present thoughts.

GM: Finally, how have you coped with the isolation of our various lockdowns? Has it been good, at least, for your creativity – or worked against you?

CB: The lockdown, as with Frank Lee Morris, didn’t imprison my creativity!

Exagon Tall Cabinets

Our thanks to Claudio for sharing his genius and creativity with us.  We look forward in anticipation to whatever his incredible mind next unleashes.  And now we are off to do some serious reading!