KETTAL
MANHATTAN
VIBIA
2007
KETTAL
2008
RAMOS-BASSOLS
FOREST
Made of chrome with a wenge diffuser, the Forest pendant lamp is
part of a series by the young team
of David Ramos Tarrés and Jordi
Bassols Borrell.
Designed to replicate the look and
feel of an indoor sofa, the modular
Manhattan has thick water-resistant-
polyurethane foam cushions and
a synthetic base that mimics the
bounce of springs.
SAMOA
2007
Winner of the Editors Award for best
outdoor furniture at this year’s ICFF,
the Iz collection typifies Rifé’s minimalist aethetic. Much of the emerging star’s furniture evolves from his
interior-design projects.
FRANCESC RIFÉ
IZ
JON
SANTACOLOMA
KANPAZAR
Protected by UV-stabilized polyethylene, the ethereal outdoor Kanpazar is
available with fluorescent bulbs.
B.LUX
2008
METALARTE
2007
A rotational-molded polyethylene
lamp, the InOut is designed for
indoor or outdoor use.
RAMÓN UBEDA AND OTTO CANALDA
INOUT
the eighties, companies asked some designers to do
furniture,” Capella says. “This was a very special
moment. Never before did Spanish companies ask
designers for design. They copied products without the need for designers. So they began to make
deals and sign contracts for design and royalties.”
The lighting manufacturer Metalarte, the first
Spanish company to discover Hayón, in 2004,
was founded in a family metal shop in Barcelona
in 1932, but by the late 1960s it had built a factory
in the neighboring town of Sant Joan Despí and
begun to produce work by prominent designers,
introducing George Hansen’s Swing-Arm lamp—
still one of its most popular products—to Spain
in 1968. “After the sixties, Spain starts to really
enter Europe, and the concept of design starts a
little bit,” says Román Riera, the third-generation
director of Metalarte, which is now part of a larger
conglomerate. “But the real modern Spain started in the early eighties. That’s the first boom of
Spanish design. The main problem is the companies are very small compared to Italian or German
firms, and most Spanish companies have to go
outside to find a market. If you take out Madrid
and Barcelona, the country is still very classical,
so we have to find new markets abroad.”
