A house we carry
Riva1920 works with timber nobody else works with. Kauri, the fossil wood buried for millennia in New Zealand. Lebanese cedar, reclaimed and fragrant. Briccole, the mooring posts pulled from the Venetian lagoon. Barrique oak, sourced since 2012 through a partnership with the San Patrignano community.
The workshop was founded in Cantù in 1920 by Nino Romano. The present surname arrived in the 1940s with his son-in-law, Mario Riva, who took over the business and gave it his name. The fourth generation runs it today: Maurizio Riva as president, his daughters Monica in general management and Elena as art director.
Finishing is done with natural wax and oil, with no synthetic varnish. The Riva Center, completed in 2010 to a Renzo Piano design, houses a 1,200 square metre showroom, a wood museum and the Pangea Lab. Three production sites, one dedicated to cedar alone since 2013. Paola Navone, Patricia Urquiola, David Chipperfield, Mario Botta, Enzo Mari and Michele De Lucchi have all designed for the company.
Artopia carries Riva1920 in Geneva. Every top carries the grain of one particular tree, so no two tables are alike. That is the whole point.