As soon as we heard the name we fell in love with Manifatture Aperte (it’s talking about us!)… open doors, just as we opened our doors many years ago.
Yes, in 2013 we launched a project of shared creation of a sofa, to help disadvantaged youths in Managua – a wonderful project called DivanoXManagua, which gave us an extraordinary sofa as well as a heart-warming experience.
Manifatture Aperte, with its institutional drive – and don’t forget that is an initiative organised by the Milan City Council – has, in our opinion, a decisive, fundamental importance.
This is not simply about opening the doors of the workshops – just this in itself is a wonderful initiative – but it also opens the mentality and the way of seeing manufacturing work.
And it does so at various levels.
First point: Manifatture Aperte is something powerful, also for the subjects involved.
Artisan SME, single operators, workshops, famous names and unknown young people: all under the reflectors and finally at the centre of attention but also at the centre of an emerging “industrial tourism” as explained by Professor Stefano Micelli in the latest issue of Sole 24 Ore.
And all this is not organised just as a marginal activity but an important initiative created by the administration of Milan, the most productive city in Italy which is making its mark on Europe and the whole world.
But that’s not all.
Second point: beside Manifatture Aperte there is also the media.
It gives people the opportunity to stop and consider the value of the work of a craftsman, the value of something lovingly made by hand,
Without reality shows, as happens in the catering business, without millions invested in publicity, without influencers and without “viral videos”, just to mention a few of the media trends in fashion today.
It seems like a dream to be able to take part in a project which will bring people into artisan workshops and laboratories, both physically and mentally. At the moment this initiative is right here in Lombardy and the Milan area but hopefully the idea will soon spread to other territories.
Just think that maybe that sofa, that piece of furniture, that purchase which a family are planning to buy, could first be seen in a visit to a local workshop rather than in a chain store or on an internet site diffused throughout the world.
Third point: it is a sign of our economy, a direction that just maybe will make us think about the future.
If Milan, Lombardy’s capital city, with all it represents in recent years, is taking an interest in artisan manufacture, surely this is an important indication for the future?
We
will stop here because it seems too good to be true. We would like to
thank The Milan City Council for the seriousness and perseverance
with which they are carrying forward this splendid initiative called
Manifatture Aperte.
The event this year will last two days rather
than just one day as in the past… and this too seems like a
positive sign,
Last but not least, we want the thank all those people who came to visit us.
We were so thrilled to see the interest, the pleasure in “dirtying their hands” with us and the enthusiasm our visitors showed when they were able to see and try all the tools of the trade, that even our craftsmen were impressed.
Thanks also to those special people who wanted to come and work with us – in some cases on the objects that are destined to become part of their everyday life – so double thanks from the company and from everyone who works with us.
Thank you for having made our work so important also through your active involvement.
Look at the videos and if you would like to create your sofa together with our BertO upholsterers, our workshop is always open for you!
Make an appointment with one of our furnishing consultants: call +39-0362-333082 or write to servizio.clienti@bertosalotti.it