Bark

Alessi

Designer: Boucquillon and Maaoui

Bark Collection

Designed by Michael Boucquillon and Donia Maaoui, the Bark collection – from the English bark – was inaugurated in 2015 by the homonymous centerpiece. The authors drew inspiration from their home, Boucquillon House: a place of experimentation, meditation and work for living in symbiosis with nature. The Bark series freweork recalls the bark of trees around the house. The result is a highly poetic collection in which every single object shows, in form or in function, a continuous and harmonious dialogue with nature.

The Designer

Boucquillon and Maaoui

Born in Belgium in 1962. In 1988 he won the competition of the Chamber of European Parliament in Brussels which signed the beginning of his Architectural and Design career. In ‘2000, he opened a new workshop dedicated to Industrial Design and experimental Architecture in Lucca – Tuscany in his “Casa Boucquillon”, extremely experimental place of exploration, meditation, live and work. Michel actually works for the world most famous International Design companies: Alessi, Artemide, Antoniolupi, Serralunga, Martinelliluce. His work is present in several Museums and got many of the main international Awards, recently: Menzione d'Onore Compasso d'Oro 2011, Good Design Award 2008, Design Plus 2006. Donia Maaoui, Michel's wife and an architect herself, works alongside her husband on some of the Alessi and Martinelliluce projects, although her principal occupation is cast bronze sculpture and painting.

The company

Founded in 1921 as a “Workshop for the processing of brass and nickel silver sheet metal, with foundry”, Alessi has always stood out for the high quality of its products.

In almost a century of history, the company has gradually evolved to become one of the leading “Factories of Italian design”, capable of applying its expertise and excellence in design management to many different product types.

Open to change and international development, Alessi at the same time has a strong bond with the traditions and cultural background of its area and continues to be synonymous with handcrafted objects produced with the help of machines.

Alessigraphy: the geography of Alessi production

Since the Company's Foundation in 1921 the Majority of Alessi Products have Been Manufactured through the Cold Working of Metals, a Tradition that is Kept Alive Today by the Skilled Workers at the Crusinallo Plant in Omegna.

Over time, Alessi also began to work with many other materials, such as porcelain, glass, wood, and plastic. A specific production method was developed for each one. Even when production takes place outside the Crusinallo plant, Alessi’s guidelines ensure the company’s original production quality standards, continuing to reconcile industrial technological complexity with an artisanal eye for detail.

The objects produced from the different materials are manufactured in various production plants across the world. They remain original Alessi objects in that they are conceived with the same design excellence and produced with the same attention to quality that sets the company’s products apart.