The Campana brothers have that sense… of consciousness, of intuition, of sensibility and sentiment.If I close my eyes I see them here. It is an a spring day of 1996 in a secluded part of what was then the production area at Edra, underneath a mezzanine with just enough light. I was participating in a meeting with two supple young men with anything but the official presence of architect’s: smiling of a composed and casual cheerfulness. I was curious but initially wary. I noticed that when they listened they tilted their heads slightly to one side, nodding to show interest. With everyone. The theme of the meeting was truly atypical: how to put together an armchair with 400 metres of rope while avoiding the obstacles, that is to say the chair’s supporting metal structure. “You’re both crazy!” Massimo Morozzi, Edra’s art director at the time, cried enthusiastically. A video tutorial had been filmed in Super 8, specially prepared by the Campana brothers as a guide for the intrepid group engaged in this enterprise. But the film was too long, so we abandoned our viewing for a procedure fine-tuned there and then. With thank you and see you later for all, including passers-by. Fernando and Humberto Campana’s Vermelha armchair, after several months in captivity, came into its productive, or rather re-productive, maturity. The memories are layered, some are clear, some less so, and have been re-interpreted because those were our initial years of very radical approaches, with challenge and experimentation almost mandatory. This is the story of my first contact with the Campana brothers. I was a little remissive, proposing things shyly, because the real interlocutors were Valerio Mazzei and Massimo Morozzi. Very soon the Campana brothers won everyone over, including the people working on the sidelines, because they took pleasure in looking around and saying thank you – and this is a trait they never lost.

The Campana brothers won everyone, because they took pleasure in looking around and saying thank you - and this is a trait they never lost.

Contrary to what one might think, Humberto and Fernando’s presence at the Edra company was never dictated by commercial meetings, or based on prototype lead times. Generally they took advantage of some officially scheduled meeting in Italy or Europe to drop in and say ‘hello’. These were informal meetings, hardly organized at all. Partly because Humberto and Fernando had a tendency to be habitudinary, and measured time in terms of the habits that were part of their daily life. Nothing special. To take an example, short breaks dedicated to resting were always welcomed, almost a need. I remember giving them the prototype space as an improvised bedroom, silent, with a dim golden light. And let no one dare to enter! Not bad for a butler. I have to admit that with Campana brother projects the weight of responsibility has always less of an encumbrance for me. This was thanks to the elasticity of their suggestions, which were never expressed definitively and could be adapted in the various phases of a project’s transformation. The great work of the Campana brothers is in being the guarantors of a coherent design process with roots that tap directly into Brazilian traditions and customs, in a mature form of elementariness, lots of curiosity and an environmental awareness. The Campana brothers have the sense of… well... Now that Fernando has gone it still feels as if there are two of them: Fernando + Humberto. And if – as Massimo Morozzi used to say – I am the third Campana brother (and how could I not be proud of that!) I truly hope I can continue with these applied family relations.

Leonardo Volpi Born in 1961, after studying art Volpi opened his own design studio. He began his collaboration with furniture companies by following product design, prototype creation, photo shoots and exhibition stands. These important experiences allowed him to mature professionally alongside technicians, making industrial experience his own, together with a realistic approach to design projects that has led to his role of several years as project and prototype development manager in Edra.