It was their passion for glass that, in the 1950s, was the meeting point for Pierangelo Gallotti and Luigi Radice, the founding partners of a company that, before any other in Italy, promoted the use of crystal in the furnishing sector, through meticulous and incessant research into the qualities of materials and their possible processing, to be then put at the service of design.
Gallotti&Radice
has grown precisely by handing down all the secrets of crystal processing, unveiled over the years thanks to the top-notch artisans involved in the company’s production line, who have been able to increase, step by step, the level of knowledge of the materials handled.
Gallotti&Radice has adapted to the challenges posed by modernity by developing in parallel an industrialized production, characterized by advanced technologies and aimed at obtaining various parts of serial and standardized products, and a more artisanal one that still places the manual processing of crystal at the center, so as to transform it into a design product that is inimitable every time.
GALLOTTI AND RADICE MILAN : SINCE 1955 BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS
It was 1955 when, united by their passion for glass, Pierangelo Gallotti and Luigi Radice decided to found an artistic space dedicated to the decoration of this material of infinite possibilities: mirrors, furniture items and lighting fixtures, strictly handmade, were the first pieces produced by the couple, which already hinted at their desire to go further, to know every secret of glass in order to continue transforming it.
It was because of this aspiration that the two friends decided to enroll in the School of Applied Art for Industry at Milan’s Castello Sforzesco, where courses in technical drawing and decoration gave them the skills to develop real design products, which is what they would do from day one of Gallotti&Radice, founded in 1956.
The time devoted to continuous research, in order to master all the different processes to the best of their ability, and the choice to rely on skilled craftsmen, led the company to receive a request for collaboration in 1971 from architect Luigi Massoni, who designed his first table for Gallotti&Radice, on the occasion of the installation of a window display at the Mobilia store in Milan, a landmark for national design. The result of this partnership is Adam, the first table made entirely of crystal, which, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, was an immediate success, convincing the fledgling company to pursue the same path.
This work will be followed by Tris, a set of three crystal tables that inaugurates the presence of the steel joint, the kaleidoscopic sculpture placed in the garden of the Villa Reale in Monza, and more recently, starting in 2008, the Air collection that brings crystal into the office interior.
GALLOTTI AND ROOT TABLES : THE GALLERY
Ever since the first one made in collaboration with Luigi Massoni, tables and coffee tables have been a hallmark of Gallotti&Radice, embodying the company’s penchant for research.
The wide range of solutions available today
, designed to satisfy every need or fantasy, is an expression of excellence, quality in details, finishes and shapes, achieved through various collaborations with many names in the world of design.
GALLOTTI AND RADICE TABLES : DESIGN AND MATERIALS
If crystal was the inevitable starting point, which, moreover, still endures today in very recent models such as Connection and Golden Moon created by Massimo Castagna, the company has not been able to curb its desire to experiment with other materials as well, as demonstrated by examples such as Prism Low, a small table in walnut wood, Oto Big with a top and base in white Carrara marble, or Zen Black, which can combine ash, crystal, marble and aluminum in a single piece.
Regardless of the collection, however, for Gallotti&Radice, focused efforts to learn about materials and refine each process are in fact tools that are used to achieve design products, characterized by original shapes and designed to last.
