Tribù

Tribù is Belgian, based in Bilzen-Hoeselt in Limburg. The company grew out of a garden furniture import business started by Henri De Cock, and dates its own founding to 1967. The present name arrived in 1998, when Lode De Cock renamed the family firm. Koen and Tom De Cock, the third generation, have run it since 2013.

The catalogue works in solid teak, aluminium and hand-woven rope. The teak comes from managed plantations in Java and is delivered untreated: the company accepts the silver-grey patina and advises against varnish and oil, recommending its own care products instead. That is worth settling before you buy, because it means accepting that the furniture will change colour within its first season.

Tribù has no in-house studio and works with outside designers: Monica Armani on Ukiyo and Tosca, Yabu Pushelberg on Amanu and Nodi, Christophe Delcourt on Suro, Piergiorgio Cazzaniga on Vis à Vis, Inoda+Sveje on the Nagomi collection. According to the company, it became in 1999 the first outdoor furniture maker to exhibit at the Salone del Mobile in Milan.

Artopia represents Tribù in Geneva, for terraces, roof gardens and grounds where outdoor furniture has to stand comparison with what is in the living room.