Pair of black wooden Gea coffee tables by Kazuhide Takahama for Gavina, 1960s.
Kazuhide Takahama (Nobeoka, 1930 - Bologna, February 10, 2010) was a Japanese architect and designer. Born in 1930, he studied architecture in Tokyo and after graduation joined Kazuo Fujioka's studio. In 1957 he arrived in Italy to oversee the architectural design of the pavilion with which Japan participated for the first time in the 11th Milan Triennale, where he met designer and entrepreneur Dino Gavina (1922-2007), with whom he embarked on a lifelong professional collaboration. He then moved to Bologna in 1964 and worked as a furniture and lamp designer at the San Lazzaro factory. In 1968 Gavina sold his company Gavina SPA to Knoll International, with its factory in Foligno designed by Achille Castiglioni, and together with Maria Simoncini (1927-2010) founded the Simon International factory (later acquired by Cassina), and the following year the exhibition and shopping center named after Marcel Duchamp opened in Bologna with the participation of the famous Dadaist painter and photographer Man Ray. In these new locations Takahama had the opportunity to collaborate with the famous architect and designer Carlo Scarpa, and in the following years he carried out an intense professional activity that led to the creation of furniture and lamps of various types, which still constitute as many works of art, always characterized by great simplicity and formal cleanliness and very often as rigorous as Zen compositions. His colleagues relate that he was so quiet that he was called "the man of stone," but his presence was clearly felt. Takahama continued as a designer until his death in 2010.
Gavina Spa was founded by Dino Gavina in 1960, who took over as CEO and named architect Carlo Scarpa as president. The company's historic headquarters are located in San Lazzaro di Savena, in a building designed by Pier Giacomo Castiglioni in 1959. In 1963, thanks to state incentives for the development of southern Italy, Dino Gavina opens an office in Foligno. In 1962 Dino Gavina met Marcel Breuer in New York and convinced him to rework and realize his designs from the 1920s. Designers who have worked for the company include Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Achille Castiglioni, Carlo Scarpa, Ignazio Gardella, and Tobia Scarpa. After the sale of the American company Knoll in 1968 and the closure of the Bologna-based brand, several products from the Gavina collection are sold under the Knoll brand; some of them are later sold to other manufacturers (such as the Sanluca armchair). Knoll still uses the Foligno site to produce its collections for European customers.
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SILVER Seller in Padova, Italy
