Estel: a patented folding door, and a table designed by Niemeyer
Founded in 1937 in Thiene by Alfredo Stella, the firm owes its name to an extending door from the 1950s. It has made office furniture since 1979, entirely in Italy.
2 MIN · 5 OBJECTS IDENTIFIEDOffice furniture is the only field of design where the person using the object never chose it. That is what makes it hard to conceive — and why it holds, unknowingly, pieces signed by some very great names.
A name that comes from a door
Estel was founded in 1937 in Thiene, in the province of Vicenza, by Alfredo Stella. The firm is now chaired by Alberto Stella, alongside his sons Massimo and Matteo — three generations on the same concern.
The name itself is an acronym: Estensibile Stella, after a folding door patented in the 1950s that made the firm famous throughout Italy. Until the late 1970s, Estel made domestic furniture for the Italian market. The office division was born in 1979 — meaning the firm had forty years behind it before doing the very thing it is known for.
The Niemeyer table
The 1980s were its years of expansion, with two pieces that made its name: the Kronos executive system and the Niemeyer table — yes, that Oscar Niemeyer. It is the exact illustration of the office-furniture paradox: a table designed by the architect of Brasília, installed in meeting rooms by people who will never know who drew it.
Production has remained entirely Italian: two factories, more than seventy thousand square metres, more than three hundred employees.
Why it interests us
Because office furniture is the largest seam of unidentified design in existence. Tens of thousands of signed pieces circulate second-hand without anyone knowing what they are: companies relocate, sell off by the lot, and an architect's table goes for the price of a melamine top.
It is one of the rare places where a scan can make a real difference in price, in both directions: recognising an editioned piece in a sale of professional furniture, or avoiding paying for a "designer" piece that is only an anonymous office system.
Going there
Estel — 7 square du Roule, 75008 Paris. Projects itinerary of Paris Design Week.
The Beyit gesture: photograph a piece and scan it — the tool tells you who edits it, at what price, and what exists around it.
One photo, every piece identified.
Your room, a shop window, an inspiration screenshot: send the photo, we find the pieces and their alternatives at every price.
On iPhone, the app does the same from your camera.
The pieces, at your budget.
Every piece mentioned, with its alternatives — from vintage to dupe.
