BD Barcelona Design Interiors
Since its origins, BD Barcelona has been an atypical furniture company. It was founded in 1972 by a group of young Spanish architects who sought to manufacture designs in which no other companies had any interest. Their mission was to produce both their own furniture creations and those of designers – both past and present – whom they admired. These founders – Pep Bonet, Cristian Cirici, Lluís Clotet, Mireia Riera, and Oscar Tusquets Blanca– still own the company today.
BD Barcelona has always made the cultivation of beauty its top priority. The company prefers artisanal techniques over mass production, and as a result, many of its products are regarded today as works of art. In fact, BD’s designs are part of the permanent collections of some of the world’s most prominent art museums, including London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
BD Barcelona has garnered prestigious design awards over the years, including the Premio Nacional de Diseño (1989), the European Community Design Prize (1990), and the Red Dot Design Award “Best of the Best” (2011). Today, its furniture can be found in the top design stores and art galleries in more than 60 countries. Despite its global recognition, nearly all BD Barcelona’s manufacturing – which combines varietal industrial and artisan processes – is still carried out locally within the Barcelona area.
You’d be hard-pressed to find another design company so specialized anywhere else in the world. That’s why here at CLIMA Home, we feel privileged to offer BD Barcelona’s unique pieces to our loyal and discerning customer base.
History
The abbreviation “BD” originally stood for Bocaccio Design, as the idea for the company was born at Bocaccio – the famed nightclub located on Barcelona’s Calle Tuset that is significant within the city’s urban history. Oriol Regàs, the owner of the club, was an early partner in the company. After Regas departed, the name was changed to BD Ediciones de Diseño. It wasn’t until 2007 that the company name became BD Barcelona Design.
Award-winning Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira was one of the first to bring his personality to the new design range with the Flamingo Lamp, which was born concurrently with the company in 1972… and is still in production. At the time, BD also produced some disparate and risqué objects, including the “Hermaphrodite” Cushions by painters Eduardo Arranz-Bravo and Francesco Bartolozzi, the provocative Jipi Lamp, and Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass Jr.‘s phallic Shiva Vase. Many other iconic designs were invented during that early period, including the A Sardinel Mailboxes, the Hialina and Hypóstila Shelves, and the Catalano Bench. Few companies in the world can boast so many products still on the market after 40 years.
By the late 1970s, BD became a point of reference for design culture in Spain. During the ’80s and ’90s, it oversaw the creation of many memorable pieces that have since become classics. The company wowed the world in the 1980s when it famously reproduced furniture designs by storied Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. BD Barcelona turned heads once again in the early ’90s when it introduced an exclusive collection of furniture and lamps with designs by the great artist Salvador Dalí. Both collections are still available today.
Designers
Characterized by its uniqueness, superior quality, and short-series productions, BD Barcelona’s portfolio includes pieces by some of the world’s most recognized designers and artists, including Alfredo Häberli, Jaime Hayon, Konstantin Grcic, Doshi Levien, and Ross Lovegrove. BD affords the creatives with whom it collaborates the freedom to employ varied materials, processes, and finishes, and experimentation is always encouraged.
Today, certain pieces are labeled as BD Art Editions; these include designs by masters like Dalí, Gaudí, and Sottsass, as well as contemporary artists such as Fernando and Humberto Campana and Alessandro Mendini.
Other notable designer collaborations include:
- Stephen Burks (Grasso)
- Cristian Zuzunaga (Dreams)
- Färg & Blanche (Couture, Little Couture)
- Otto Canalda (Binaria, with Jordi Badía; Janet and 2001, with Ramón Úbeda)
- Pepe Cortés (Jamaica, Olvidada)
- Antoine + Manuel (Tout va Bien)
- Jordi Badía (Binaria)
- Eduard Samsó (Mirallmar)
- Jordi Pérez and Isabel Gamero (Plec)
- Josep Maria Jujol (Casa de Familia)
- Pepa Reverter (Free Port)
“In the beginning we had an idea that we still pursue: to reproduce historic pieces by the great masters of furniture design.”
