After ten years spent working in the Italian manufacturing field, designer Mirco Montecchi and artisan Guido Fregni decided to join their skills by launching LAB145, the Modena-based factory that has been in business since 2012. Merging two similar yet collateral professional paths led to the creation of new projects by playing with materials in order to produce much functional pieces of furniture. Tommaso Fregni, 29, son of Guido and marketing manager of the brand, took us to the backstage of LAB145.

Why LAB145?
«LAB stands for laboratory as each of our products features a strong handcrafted side and gets handmade at any stage of its production process. 145 is the actual street number of our address.».

Lamps, tables, chairs, stools, magazine racks: what’s the common feature of all of your products?
«They all share sort of a double soul: on the one hand they are 100% handmade and customizable in terms of size, material and color; on the other, they can be reproduced on a great scale. This makes us offer both a custom and a mass product, which can fulfill any need and request».

Design and multi-functionality: let’s talk about Square D.
«Square D means the best of functionality, that was our aim. It is a small table that can suit both a living room and a bedroom, but can also turn into a stool thanks to the magnetic application of fabric. Having a lamp in it, it always serves as lamp and magazine rack, offering a functional solution that saves a lot of space and merges many different pieces of furniture in only one rich product».

Tell us about LAB145’s participation in the 2015 Homi and Fuorisalone.
«We participated in Homi on last January and three months later we joined Milan’s Fuorisalone by presenting our stand at Opificio 31. Both the events proved to be a great stage for the launch of our projects such as the marble and plexiglass bookcase which could be sort of experienced by the attendees».

Meaning?
«The ultimate test is always making experts and general people come and see your product: if they like it, if it works, than you know you did it right. We got very good feedback during both the events, which also helped us in terms of exposure. We are actually thinking about going back to Homi in September ».

How important are innovation and experimentation to LAB145?
«Innovating is crucial to us, and so is experimenting new forms and most of all materials, as we want to produce more and more advanced practical performing products without raising their price».

What are you working on right now?
«We are focusing on sintering».

Sintering?
«It’s the laser process that turns powder – nylon ad glass powder in our case – into a plastic indivisible material. It has been belonging to the industrial prototype production so far, due to its speed and flexibility. This makes such process appeal to the design field as well, especially since the final result is better in terms of resistance and texture than the ones belonging to 3d printing such as PLA. Our aim is to try sintering on two renowned products of ours: Shell lamp and Origami. We feel like we’re moving in the right direction...».

FOTO Courtesy: Paolo Borghi, Tommaso Fregni, Mirco Montecchi

Info: www.lab145.it