Salone del Mobile 2024 Preview: Antonio Rodriguez talks about the new Apper collection for LaCividina

4 April 2024

“Less is more”: Antonio Rodriguez has no doubts in confirming that this is the concept underneath his approach to the project which is also fully expressed in the new Apper collection just presented for laCividina, a company with which he has been collaborating for some time.

Born in Spain in 1963, Rodriguez studied in Valencia where he founded his studio in 1989. In 1993 he moved to Milan and this choice would radically change the course of his professional life, together with the meeting with Matteo Thun of whom he would become a partner in the studio Matteo Thun & Partner where he is also responsible for product design.

Concrete and down to earth, he believes in dialogue with companies and in the importance of merging ideas and skills to create a unique and sensible project. As also happened with Apper, whose genesis he tells. 

What are the characteristics and the idea behind the new collection for laCividina?

With the Apper Collection I wrote the sixth chapter of my journey together with laCividina. I know the company well, I fully recognize the dedication, seriousness, and qualitative excellence of their manufacturing. This ability is manifested above all in their ability to expertly interpret our renderings and technical drawings. The idea is one thing but the realization is another.

Even in the presence of any gaps or omissions in technical details, their expertise is revealed in the ability to constantly enrich the product development process. Thanks to my concept and laCividina’s very strong know-how in the world of upholstery, the Apper collection was born.

Our goal was to create an object with a strong personality, without sacrificing the aesthetic simplicity and essentiality that distinguish our work. The difficulty lay precisely in finding the right balance between innovation and familiarity… We wanted to create something unique, different, which had a great personality, but at the same time which met contemporary trends, which could adapt to different situations – in the residential sector as in the contract one – without losing your identity!

In general, what do we need, right now, inside our homes, in terms of textures, colors and functions?

We live in an era in which our homes are increasingly full and richer. Maybe even too much. In Apper we worked by subtraction, removing details without depriving the object of its soul. We wanted to find the personality while working with super clean elements. Thus was born a unique interpretation of soft and organic aesthetics, through a collection with a bourgeois spirit, a taste that refers to the atmosphere of the Ville Lumiere, simple and linear. The goal is to return to what is important in life as well as in design: the essential. Our philosophy revolves around the concept “less is more”, a real challenge to create a distinctive product, capable of standing out in a panorama full of accessories with rounded shapes.

In your professional career, what were the most significant moments and encounters?

During my professional career – which has now exceeded thirty years – there have been many significant moments and encounters that I have experienced. Certainly, one of those that marked me the most was when I moved to Italy, to Milan and then, obviously, no less important, the moment in which I met Matteo (NDR: Thun) and we started collaborating together.

In the context of your work, are there moments in which you feel free to experiment with new ideas?

Fortunately, I always feel free to experiment with new ideas, obviously without ever neglecting the identity of the company, the brief given to me and the technology that it can make available to the final project.

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