Maserati’s design director and head of the broader Stellantis creative design studio, Klaus Busse, chats to Car Design News editor James McLachlan about the crossover between car and furniture design.
And not just in theory, but in practice: Maserati has just released a co-developed set of furniture and a special edition Grecale with Italian brand Giorgetti. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, Busse has also worked on a set of furniture inspired by The Joker.
James McLachlan: Here we are in the showroom of Maserati for an interesting collaboration, not with cars per se, but with furniture. Tell us about this collaboration with Giorgetti Furniture. How did it come about?
Klaus Busse: We’re actually sitting on these pieces from the Maserati Giorgetti collaboration, or I should say co-belief. It started about two years ago over a beautiful espresso with the CEO Giovanni del Vecchio. We were debating furniture and cars, and we experienced this mutual passion for both our crafts. When I had the chance to visit their Bottega, I discovered there were so many similarities to what we do [at Maserati]. Not only the obsession for craftsmanship, detail and quality, but also embracing the latest technology and innovation.
For example, there is an amazing multi-axis milling machine to create some of their wooden pieces. It reminded me of what we also do with Maserati, where we embrace the traditional craft while striving to use the latest technology, like laser etching. So over months of continuous conversation, we realised this is a perfect partnership and we should do something together.
JM: And it’s a very interesting partnership. I like that idea of a shared co-belief, but how did that sort of translate into some of the forms we’re seeing?
KB: With the furniture itself, Giorgetti made a return visit to Centro Stile Maserati. We educated them a little bit on our thinking process, how we construct cars, what elements on the Maserati are important. Giancarlo Bosio [Giorgetti’s chief designer] then took this to the drawing board and created some of these pieces.
The tables we see here are actually inspired by the three portholes we have on the side of our car’s fender. And then this curved element on the back of the chair is inspired by our front grill. So it’s not a collection of found pieces on the car, but he does echo a couple of elements in the furniture. The other thing was just this shared approach to what Italian craft is versus copying Maserati into furniture.
JM: And what does this collaboration tell us about the changing nature of your discipline as an automotive designer?
KB: I’ve been in this craft of automotive design for 30 years, more or less. For the first few years – and I still see this with young designers – you’re obsessed with cars. There’s nothing else but cars. It is only later on that you start expanding, looking for influence and for inspiration. Designers always looked at furniture, planes, other pieces of culture. But we need to realise, why stop there? Why not actually expand the skill of designing?
At the end of the day if you’re a good designer, you should be able to solve all kinds of problems, not only the ones on four wheels. We also have this opportunity with Maserati because our customers also have beautiful furniture, so why not do something with furniture? They have beautiful sound systems in their home, so we also designed a speaker system with our partners at Sonos Faber. We also have a beautiful partner in Antinori – they do red wine – and I was trying to convince their marketing officer if I design one of their bottles. To really bring this universe together.
JM: There’s not just this partnership with Giorgetti, but also with Warner Brothers… Tell us about that.
KB: This touches on my work with the Stellantis Design Studio – my other hat. With this creative agency we do work for external companies, everything except cars. We’ve done a boat, helicopter, the silhouette of a plane. With The Joker, were approached by Formitalia and Warner Brothers to interpret the character of The Joker in furniture.
This collaboration reminded me of all the wonderful things we do in the car
JM: What a fun collaboration. Now, you’ve spoken about about the collaboration between the furniture and the car. Now let’s think about the car that draws inspiration from the furniture.
KB: Exactly. With the Grecale Giorgetti, this is our interpretation of this collaboration. It starts with the colour. The first coat, you can see it in some angles, is this kind of muted blue. And of course, blue is the color of Maserati. Then we added this kind of warm, copperish flare on top of it.
JM: It comes up really well here [on the shoulder line] as the light catches it.
KB: That’s a sign of respect to their craft. It’s this combination of the warmth of leather and the warmth of wood. We bring these two colours together to symbolise the collaboration on the exterior. But being furniture, the real story is, of course, when you get into the car.
What’s really special is this fabric, the wool that we’re using. If you think about classic horse-drawn carriages, it is only the person steering the carriage who was sitting on leather, whereas the people inside the carriage were enjoying wool and silk. For us, it was important to find a material that goes beyond leather. Another beautiful material that we developed together with Giorgetti is this special wood grain which uses all these kind of puzzle pieces.
When we presented this car to the Giorgetti family, I realised we automotive designers sometimes take these things for granted. This collaboration reminded me of all the wonderful things we do in the car and, from my point of view, made this collaboration very, very special.
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