YESTERDAY,
TODAY,
TOMORROW
Visionnaire, founded by the company IPE and based in Bologna
since 1959, is a meta-luxury brand of reference in the sector of interior
design Made in Italy, it’s renowned for its one-of-a-kind design
prowess tailored to respond to the desires of its clients.
The brand operates in over 55 countries, thanks to over 30 exclusive
monobrand stores and a network of department stores and
multibrand showrooms all over the world.
Since 2004 Visionnaire has formulated a distinctive style, based on
lively experimentation on materials, volumes of unexpected poise
and inimitable motifs that reveal the totally Italian background of the
company. Thanks to collaboration with a team of eclectic, visionary
Italian and foreign designers, the company is an ideal partner for
bespoke proposals in residential and contract applications, luxury
hotellerie, as well as the yachting and aviation sectors.
The brand bases its activity on the value of knowledge and continuous
research on the concept of contemporary beauty, confirming
its exceptional ability to create design projects and products of
outstanding sartorial workmanship, fostering and restoring value to
the skills of local artisans located across the Italian territory.
The meta-luxury of its contents and values is reflected in the
responsible use of materials, through a constant technological
research and different investments to boost the efficiency of its chain
of production.
Visionnaire relies on a network of over 30 crafts hubs located all over
the country, enabling the company to create extraordinary and unique
objects: the mixing and matching of materials, the application of the
craftsmen’s skills to test, refine and develop new solutions, define the
identity of each individual product, making it unique and inimitable,
but also ready for reproduction.
Visionnaire sets a style – creates a new language – that has a
character of unexpected invention, formulated to reveal an expressive
universe that knows no thematic bounds and places no restrictions
on experimental investigation. The force of this way of interpreting
an entrepreneurial mission lies in the ability to forge beyond limits,
to extend the company’s action over the threshold of the possible,
fulfilling desires and visions previously relegated to the realm of the
unachievable. Visionnaire loves complexity, finding solutions through
extreme research, bringing together distant worlds and combining
the multiple forms of art with the positive excitement found in the
dimension of dreams.
Mercury was presented in the two sofa and armchair versions in 1961
at the first edition of the Salone del Mobile in Milan by IPE.
Immediately recognized as an experimental company, IPE was the
first to interpret a revolutionary system involving the use of polyethers
moulded around lightweight metal reticular structures as a substitute
for kapok, horsehair, springs, elastic cords and nails in the manufacture
of padded furniture. The company was able to adapt this engineering
and new construction method to soft and rounded shapes that were
previously impossible to achieve, perfectly embodied by Mercury, the
first example of this approach. The contemporary style of the model,
designed at the time by sculptor Rito Valla, convinced Visionnaire
to reissue the model with current polyethers and put it back on the
market. Mercury is now available on 1stDibs for sale at www.1stdbs.
com.
Domus 406, September 1963, page 58; Domus 408, November 1963, page 65; Rivista
Dell’Arredamento 107, November 1963.
