BD Barcelona Design is the most prestigious Spanish design company worldwide. It was founded in 1972 as Boccacio Design by the architects and interior designers Pep Bonet, Cristian Cirici, Lluis Clotet, Mireia Riera and Oscar Tusquets, and Oriol Regás. One year later the company was renamed as BD Ediciones de Diseño, until 2007. At the beginning, this company was born with the expression of defiance of a group of unsatisfied arquitects but soon it was transformed into an own philosophy to break all the limits, even the commercial ones.
“Dalilips sofas”, designed by Dali and Oscar Tusquets for Figueres Museum in 1972
“Vis à vis de Gala” sofa, designed by Salvador Dali (1935-1937)
“Leda” sculpture-chair by Dali in 1937
Its portfolio has products designed by contemporary designers as Alvaro Siza Viera, Ettore Sottsass, Javier Mariscal, Alessandro Mendini, Konstantin Grcic, Jaime Hayon, Ross Lovegrove and Alfredo Häberli, as well as products designed by some of the most recognized artists and designers worldwide as Gaudí, Salvador Dalí, Charles Rennie Mackinstosh or Giuseppe Terragni.
Jaime Hayon presents Gardenias Collection for BD Barcelona Design
Barcelona Design Gallery, much more than a showroom
This company has several awards like the Premio Nacional de Diseño en 1989, the European Community Design Prize in 1990 and the Red Dot Design Award “Best of the best” in 2011.
BD doesn´t mass produce, BD publish. The leit motiv of the company is trying to look for -in each piece- the best of the processes, the most suitable to its essence, in a way that all of them can be finally the result of the best handmade techniques or the more intelligent technological facilities.
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High-end wood decoration by Ruarte Contract
Click on the picture to see coffered ceilings
Click on the picture to see staircases
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BD took into account many modern designers´ fascination for Gaudi´s furniture, in fact BD was the first firm to rescue them from history and reproduce them in a handmade way, with the same materials – solid oak varnished – and with all the richness of the details in the same way the originals were made.
“Gaulino” chair by BD Barcelona Design, halfway inspired by Gaudi
Cabinet
In the 90´s a team of experts guided by Oscar Tusquets had a purpose to make come true all the furniture that Dali had drawn for Jean Michael Frank, among them the chair and the Leda table from the picture “Femme á la tête rose” in 1935. The sculpture Joaquin Campos was in charge to materialize them and BD was the one devoted to the production and putting on the market on a worldwide scale.
Oscar Tusquets speaking about his Gaulino chair and his friendship with Dali
Among the contract projects by BD, it´s worth to remark the following :
Grand Hotel Convento di Amalfi
Janet stools for Toyo Kitchen, Tokyo
University Residence in Ljubljana, Slovenia
Terrace at Madrid Casino
Photos via BD Contract
