ABOUT
"The secret soul of useful things"
Stefano casciani
Marta Sala was born in Milan into a design-focused family. Her mother, Maria Teresa Tosi, founded the legendary Azucena brand together with maverick architects Luigi Caccia Dominioni (Marta's uncle), Ignazio Gardella and Corrado Corradi Dell’Acqua.
During her 25 years at Azucena, she was involved in various aspects of the company - from customers to communication – and developed a particular passion for production. She worked side by side with her uncle and assimilated his 'sense of good design'. At the same time, she worked to promote the brand internationally, with a view to expanding this precious and creative family heritage.
In 2011 Marta felt a disruption was needed to bring Azucena into the future so she invited German designer Konstantin Grcic to create a piece for the brand, with a strong focus on new materials yet keeping a solid dialogue with the firm’s historical pieces.
Meanwhile, the design world was in turmoil and changing. Marta perceived the strong shift from pure industrial design to an approach focused on interiors and lifestyle. Shortly afterwards, she met architects Lazzarini & Pickering with whom she immediately formed a strong bond. In February 2015, after ending her journey with Azucena, she started working with them and launched her eponymous brand, producing a ten-piece collection designed by Carl and Claudio in record time.
This was the beginning of MARTASALA ÉDITIONS, a new brand that, over a period of 7 years, would design and produce more than 70 pieces of furniture, while defining a novel approach to couture interiors.
MARTASALA ÉDITIONS consists of pieces that hint at the past, express the present and look to the future.
“I consider my family heritage a treasure and so I decided to embrace it without, however, letting the glories of the past overwhelm me.
It took some courage and a touch of madness to take the best of Italian design and the savoir faire that goes with it and translate it into a brand that speaks the language of today.
I knew that the Bauhaus values centred on usefulness, a sense of beauty and the principle of form follows function, would still be valid today. Unlike fashion, design is straightforward and practical. If it is well done, it works. And yet, it is not so simple; so I started a dialogue with these precepts in mind and using my cultural background. I relied on my taste, a good dose of instinct and irony and, after perceiving the needs of the market, I unexpectedly became a distinctive voice in today's design scene.
I want to imbue everything related to the brand with cultural values and an emotional connection. If they were a book, MARTASALA ÉDITIONS' pieces could be translated into countless languages and would always strike a chord with readers. Is this not the pure essence of Italian design?”
This very personal parallel between object, eye, mind and heart is what drives MARTASALA ÉDITIONS’ collections. Objects must enter lives, not just spaces. “I want to create objects that will be able to speak to future generations,” my uncle Caccia Dominioni often said, a lesson I have obviously made my own, while trying to enjoy myself without being crushed by the weight of the past."
Each collection and each piece is the result of a dialogue between Marta Sala and the designers or architects she decides to work with, with the production partners and craftsmen who will bring the pieces to life, as well as with the clients themselves who are actively involved in the creative process.
The intrinsic sustainability of craftsmanship
MARTASALA ÉDITIONS is involved by the sustainability issue.
Each piece produced is made to order, not mass produced, to avoid waste of materials and space. Every object is realised by craftmen and small industries from the close Brianza (around Milano) in order to support local knowledge and heritage, with selected noble materials. Marta herself visits the working places once or twice by week to support her personal relation with the production makers and to garantee the quality control.
Every single piece is impeccably realised to ensure it longevity and timeless value. MARTASALA ÉDITIONS consists of pieces that hint at the past, express the present and look to the future.