Since 1966, B&B Italia has stood as the pinnacle of Italian design excellence—a brand that doesn't just follow trends but creates them. Founded by the visionary entrepreneur Piero Ambrogio Busnelli, B&B Italia transformed the furniture industry by marrying industrial innovation with uncompromising aesthetics, establishing itself as the global standard for contemporary luxury furnishings.
What began as C&B—a joint venture between Busnelli and Cesare Cassina—quickly became so successful that competitive tensions emerged. When Cassina offered to buy him out, Busnelli refused. Instead, he purchased Cassina's stake in 1973, rebranding as B&B Italia and cementing his position as one of the greatest pioneers of Italian contemporary design.
Busnelli's genius lay in his pioneering approach to production. B&B Italia was among the first to introduce cold-moulded polyurethane foam technology to furniture manufacturing, revolutionising the way sofas and chairs were constructed. This wasn't just innovation for its own sake—it enabled entirely new forms and levels of comfort previously unimaginable.
The brand's roster of collaborators reads like a who's who of design royalty: Antonio Citterio, Patricia Urquiola, Mario Bellini, Gaetano Pesce, Zaha Hadid, Naoto Fukasawa, and countless others. These weren't merely commissioned designers—B&B Italia fostered genuine partnerships, providing designers with cutting-edge Research & Development facilities and decades of accumulated expertise.
The results speak for themselves. Mario Bellini's Le Bambole collection won the prestigious Compasso d'Oro in 1979, while Gaetano Pesce's iconic Up series—particularly the voluptuous Up5 "Big Mama" chair with its attached ottoman—became a pop culture icon exhibited in museums worldwide. In 1989, B&B Italia achieved something unprecedented: the first Compasso d'Oro award ever given to a manufacturing company itself, recognising its constant integration of scientific research with functional, expressive design.
Even the brand's headquarters makes a statement. In 1972, B&B Italia commissioned a young Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers—fresh off their Centre Pompidou collaboration—to design a steel-framed, postmodern building north of Milan. The structure's exposed metal exoskeleton perfectly embodied the brand's philosophy: innovation made visible.
Today, B&B Italia operates across multiple divisions—Home, Contract, and Outdoor—with products sold in 80 countries through an extensive network of flagship stores and authorised dealers. The brand manages complex turnkey projects for luxury hotels, corporate offices, yachts, and high-rise residences worldwide. Recent installations include Zaha Hadid Architects' One Thousand Museum in Miami, Bulgari Hotels across multiple continents, and countless other prestigious international projects.
At HFOC, we specialise in sourcing authentic second-hand B&B Italia pieces—from the sleek modularity of Antonio Citterio's designs to the sculptural drama of Patricia Urquiola's work. Each piece represents not just furniture, but a fragment of design history, offering discerning buyers the opportunity to own genuine Italian craftsmanship at a fraction of retail prices.
B&B Italia doesn't create furniture. It creates modern heirlooms.