CAPDELL SILLALA

ECO chair, designed by Carlos Tiscar

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Capdell, seating for the contract market

The Valencia-based company Capdell has been manufacturing wooden chairs for 40 years. Thanks to its successful career, it’s become a very high-profile company in the contract furniture sector. Clients include such renowned, international hotel chains as Hilton, NH, Meliá, Sheraton, Marriott and Accor. What’s more, it’s undertaken iconic projects in a whole host of countries – most recently, a casino in Montreal.

What marks the Capdell brand out is the way it fuses the latest technology and engineering to perfection when manufacturing its goods, without losing its core identity and principles, namely its cabinet-making and hand-crafting expertise.

Its chief strengths are the high quality and calibre of its design. Capdell sees chairs as a universal form of design, which must meet aesthetic criteria and function well – passing all durability and ergonomics tests. What’s more, Capdell takes environmentalist issues seriously; its products have been made from recyclable raw materials for years.

A major turning point in Capdell’s history could be witnessed at the most recent Milan furniture fair, where it presented a completely fresh portfolio, comprising seven pieces that reflect the company’s latest approach. The fair showcased Gabriel Teixidó’s Moon and Zas designs, Carlos Tíscar his Ava and Eco pieces and Italian Fiorenzo Dorigo his Ics and Capita creations. And finally, Capdell’s Ymay chair was developed by the company’s in-house design team.

Moreover, at the next Hábitat Valencia furniture fair, Capdell will unveil its next project created in collaboration with hip Swedish design studio Claesson Koivisto Rune. Watch this space…

We approached this brand and spoke to Gauthier de Nutte, its international commercial director, to get an in-depth insight into its history and future plans:

Interiors From Spain: Capdell has always mainly specialised in contract seating. Why is this?

Capdell: Capdell is fundamentally a seating manufacturer. Although our portfolio also incudes some tables, our clients tend to team our chairs with tables and furniture by other manufacturers in their contract or domestic projects. For logistical reasons, small orders for our chairs have become more expensive for us, while orders for bigger amounts remain competitively priced. That’s one reason why the contract sector is our main market, especially on an international level. That said, we don’t disregard the domestic market.

Thanks to our high level of sales on the contract side, we place huge importance on the quality of the construction of our chairs – as such we hold the official certificate from AIDIMA (Technological Institute for Furniture, Wood, Packaging and Related Industries) verifying their resistance to wear and tear in public spaces.

IFS: What is Capdell’s most successful product to date?

Capdell: Probably our Primma chair of 1991, designed by Vicente Solo. That year, we launched three key chair designs – Primma, Kim and Flash – that marked a significant turning point for the company. Of these the best-selling chair has been Primma. The design of these three chairs or armchairs – assembled out of metal, wood and visible screws – was ground-breaking at the time. Strong, lightweight and competively priced, they met the exact requirements of the market.

IFS: Can you highlight some of Capdell’s most prestigious, international projects?

Capdell: The cafés at France’s National Assembly in Paris and Cologne museum, among others. Other international projects of ours which I’d highlight are the French Football Federation, the casinos of Bordeaux in France and in Montreal, Canada, as well as the panoramic restaurant of Berlin’s Fernmeldeturm telecommunications tower.

IFS: What new collections can we look forward to seeing at the next Milan Furniture Fair? Can you give us a sneak preview?

Capdell: At Milan next year, our star product will be a collection designed by Swedish studio Claesson Koivisto Rune – a chair, armchair, sofa and stool. We do have other projects in the pipeline for Milan next year but it’s too early for us to divulge what these are. It’s worth mentioning too that this year we’ve added Carlos Tíscar’s Eco design, Gabriel Teixidó’s Zas piece and two collections –Ics and Capita – by Italian designer Fiorenzo Dorigo to our portfolio.

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