Roberto Gavazzi, CEO of Boffi, explains Boffi Code: a total customizing kitchen.
For total customizing thanks to a wide range of materials and finishes (but also hoods, ranges and cabinets), Boffi Code is a kitchen that does not exist until the client orders the configuration that best suits his needs and desires. What is the commercial reasoning behind this type of project?
In recent years we have realized that our clients are focusing on products that are as unique and special as possible. It is a strong trend, particularly among clients with a real passion for design, and especially in the kitchen and the bath.
There is a clear demand for something that goes beyond the single object, something that can define an atmosphere, a sensation, a special emotions. Already prior to the Boffi Code project (which applies to the kitchen but also to the bath), we were moving in this direction thanks to a very large collection that could respond to the needs of all kinds of customers.
But when the desire to own something different becomes more frequent, we often find that we have to construct, to customize, to personalize and adapt projects to meet the requirements of an architect or a client. So we thought it might be interesting to go with this trend towards tailor-made creations (which also exists in other fields, from clothing to automobiles) and to make even wider proposals, guaranteeing greater potential for personalization.
For us, the ideal is to orient clients, in order to avoid a total redesign of the object (which would be complicated as well as costly). We want to set the basic scheme of products on which to graft more or less extreme factors of personalization.
Achieving this also depends on our partners in the territory and their ability to channel the creativity of clients, to make a product that is clearly unique but not uselessly complex. Creating your own ideal kitchen is like working on a project of architecture, like designing a house, including the estimate.
The trend was already there, we have simply channeled it into a more precise, more regulated scheme, showing that we are capable of supplying something flexible, while conserving all the advantages of a structured, certified, organized company. In short, with all the guarantees Boffi is able to offer its clients.
As we know, Boffi Code bears the signature of a designer who has long been linked to the company, namely Piero Lissoni. Who has been involved in the choice of the materials and finishes (ranging from age-old wood to metals and natural stones) with which it is possible to personalize the kitchen?
Lissoni, who has always been the creative spirit behind the company, has helped us a lot in this project. Together, we began with a question: how to offer something that is not a serial product, that in substance does not exist until it has been designed.
Then, together, we focused on certain proposals that seemed interesting, to stimulate the imagination of our clients. We thought about several ‘basic’ models that would include a series of ideas connected with given materials and forms. Besides Lissoni, for Boffi Code we also discussed things with some of our partners in Italy and Europe, with the aim of finding the best solutions to respond to the desires of customers.
How are clients assisted in the choice of their own ideal Boffi Code?
We work to supply a basic scheme for the kitchen, whose coordinates can be disrupted, however. In general terms, we give our commercial partners in the territory the input necessary to guide customers, within the limits of possibility, towards the basic structure of what Boffi is offering.
A range of offerings that can then be modified (drawing on a range of different materials, handles, forms, measurements) to obtain a different kitchen, as close as possible to the client’s original idea. So for us it is fundamental to choose partners that have the technical and design skills necessary to propose Boffi Code.
Once the order has been made, what are the delivery times for a Boffi Code kitchen?
There is no single answer: the times vary, inevitably, in relation to the complexity of each project.
What future developments do you foresee for the Boffi Code project?
At the next Salone del Mobile we will present other proposals that move in the same direction: the idea is to assign the Boffi Code collection to a different architect or designer each year, giving them the freedom to create original versions.
Some of these proposals will be inserted in the series and will become part of the Boffi Code range that we might call ‘standard’: an apparent contradiction in terms, but one that is necessary to provide an identity and to give substance to a collection that would otherwise be too intangible, and therefore hard to grasp.
Photos by Tommaso Sartori – Text by Andrea Pirruccio
