Giorgio Topan, the designer big factories keep calling

There is a line on Archiutti's designer page that sums up Giorgio Topan better than any manifesto: he works with the biggest office furniture companies, Italian and international. Born in Padova in 1958, an IUAV Venice architecture graduate of 1982, seasoned at the Zanussi/Electrolux design centre and then for over twenty years in a shared practice with Gianantonio Perin, he now leads Topan & Partners, a studio spanning office, home, lighting and graphic design.

What the big factories buy is range: the executive collection Lloyd for IVM Office on one side, the operative series E-Place for DVO on the other, with ten Archiutti collections in between. For Indian companies furnishing floor after floor, La Mercanti can put those signatures to work across the whole building. Large factories keep calling him back — that is the only review that matters.