AlgrantiLAB

Biography

Pietro Algranti has run AlgrantiLAB since 2014. His path in the workshop began in 2010 alongside his aunt Costanza, who had founded it in 1997 in Milan’s Isola district. Originally from Livorno and a graduate in Interior Design from the Politecnico di Milano, he carries on the research developed over the years, staying true to the idea of leaving the material as close as possible to how it is found.

Pallets, gutters, barrels and sheet metal change shape and purpose to become furniture, lamps, mirrors and kitchens. Traces of use, imperfections and the marks left by time are not hidden, but become part of the new project.

AlgrantiLAB is a space made of wood shavings, dust, ideas and manual work. Pietro lives and works in Isola together with Trippa, dog and loyal secretary of the workshop.

Technique and process

Ideas, thoughts and the gestures of the hands accompany every stage of the work. Reclaimed materials are observed, selected and then bent, reshaped and assembled with respect for the history they carry with them. Wood, iron, copper, aluminium and brass keep their own characteristics even when they take on a new form.

Every piece of furniture and accessory is one of a kind. Its character comes from the meeting of an imperfect material, never the same as another, and the craftsmanship needed to transform it. Creating an object, large or small, means observing what the material suggests and relating it to an idea, until a balance is found between form, function and construction.

In bespoke projects, the work begins by listening to needs and wishes, assessing spaces and light, and choosing the materials together. This can result in a single piece of furniture or in a project that involves an entire space, indoor or outdoor, private or public.

Materials that have already had a history find new forms and new purposes, becoming objects and spaces designed to be lived in.