In 1925, at the foot of the Italian Alps, two brothers opened a workshop dedicated to the production of old-style pieces of furniture. From the tiny township of Montesolaro, Giulio and Stefano Porro set about creating pieces for the new Milanese bourgeoisie, each marked with the name “Porro”. 

Fast forward to 2024 and Porro remains one of the preeminent names in Italian furniture, having built a legacy spanning three generations of Porro’s and a shift from traditional to modern furniture design. Through more than a century of operations, Porro has been known for their ability to select, work and interpret wood, using the material in unexpected ways by implementing cutting-edge technologies alongside the fine craftsmanship of their founders. 

Indeed, cast your eye over the Porro collection and you’ll find traces of the brand’s history, with traditional techniques of carving, wood bending and inlay all used, while unique modern technologies (some of which are patented to Porro), lend substance and a contemporary value to each design. 

Architecturally driven

Part of this synchronicity comes from the deep knowledge the Porro’s have of their chosen material, with the wood collection personally managed by the family to this day. Over the years, close collaborations with leading Italian architects have helped to direct and manifest this knowledge into iconic designs and applications, with current architect Piero Lissoni the latest in a long list of esteemed names. This current partnership has produced a material palette for the Porro product suite, featuring a range of 16 solutions that can be applied across the brand’s systems and parts of the collection. 

Products to take note of

Of this collection, there are a number of pieces that stand out. Spanning armchairs, tables, and systems, these pieces all celebrate the inherent luxury of true craftsmanship, while offering customisation and bespoke elements that are so crucial to the flexible design needs of today.

Take Acquario, a sleek drawer unit made in transparent glass with burnished brass profiles or cuvèe, complete with three shelves each equipped with wooden trays. Perfect for walk-in-wardrobes as well as retail fitouts, this piece is finely angled and deeply considered, a refined structure that allows the grains and textures of the wooden trays to shine.

In keeping with Acquario’s exacting approach to the linear, Comodino Offshore is a cubed accessory designed equally as a bedside table or as a solo piece in its own right. A true celebration of timber, Comodino Offshore has a seamless drawer that pulls out, with a second drawer tucked beneath the larger’s facade to maintain the continuous external surface of the unit. 

Romby – a cocoon armchair – interprets Porro’s key material in a more playful way, with the upholstered chair perched above a single, conical, solid leg, where the juxtaposition of timber against coloured upholstery is almost reminiscent of a healthy serving of gelato.

Back to the fine lines, and Pascal is an exercise in lightness made manifest, where a motif of die-cast aluminium wing-shaped legs run continuously across four corners to create seamless bases for this system of tables. These sculptural pieces can feature table tops in either solid wood, marble or ceramic, allowing for different design aesthetics to make the Pascal system their own. 

And finally, Frank. Designed by the aforementioned Piero Lissoni, this armchair is almost classically French, combining a soft and enveloping shell-shaped back, solid and sturdy metal legs that reference the slender frame of Pascal, and the padded and sprung seat for superior comfort, which together create an inviting yet striking piece that’s ideal for designs of all typologies.

As one of the leading names in furniture design, Porro is in demand across the globe, and is available to view, purchase and specify in Singapore through Xtra Design, your destination for high-end furniture pieces.

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