A house we carry
Two production lines run side by side in the Cermenate factory. One is heavily industrial: waterjet cutting, glass tempering. The other kept the gestures of the original workshop, decorating and finishing glass by hand, burnishing copper by hand on certain pieces. That coexistence explains Gallotti&Radice fairly well.
Pierangelo Gallotti and Luigi Radice met at the industrial art school in Milan, where they studied drawing and ornamental decoration. In 1956 they opened a space in Brianza devoted to decorating glass. The first output was lighting, mirrors and objects made entirely by hand, as one-offs. The company is described as the first Italian firm to push crystal into furniture.
Pierangelo Gallotti designed the headquarters building himself in the 1980s and 1990s, around solids, voids and transparency. The second generation runs the firm today: Silvia and Massimo Gallotti, with Marco Radice. More than thirty designers work on the collections, among them Massimo Castagna, who drew the Navigli bookcase in hand-burnished copper, along with Carlo Colombo, Monica Armani, Luca Nichetto and Claesson Koivisto Rune.
Artopia carries Gallotti&Radice in Geneva. The house works tempered crystal at large sizes, and it is often delivery access, rather than the drawing itself, that decides whether a given piece is possible.