Tectona: French luxury furniture that combines design and durability
Since 1977, Tectona’s commitment to longevity is reflected in the longevity of its furniture. From design to prototyping, every detail is carefully studied before manufacturing a piece of furniture made to last over time.
Tectona is the French know-how in high-end furniture for over 40 years. The company has chosen to set up its showroom on rue du Bac in Paris. The group’s iconic creations can be found there, such as the circular garden bench, made of teak, its favorite material.
“Our customers take great care in their furnishings,” says Blanche Aloisi de Crépy, general manager of Tectona, “they love to complete their furniture. The group has a dual origin: Italian and Anglo-Saxon with a name inherited from Tectona grandis, botanical name of this rot-proof teak tree, which, since 1800, became the material chosen by English sailors for the framework of their ships.
A sustainable brand
The brand continues today to re-upholster parasols, still made in Italy, in its Normandy workshop in Doudeville, pieces sold sometimes forty years ago, that the owners have kept. “What other outdoor furniture company can boast such a service today?” asks Arnaud Brunel, Tectona’s president.
Tectona’s business model sometimes deviates from the norm, with the choice, for example, to have expensive stocks with, allowing a delivery time of a few days instead of six weeks with some competitors. This promise to repair as quickly as possible the objects bought years before encourages their owners to keep these pieces of furniture, durable in every sense of the word.
And if the owners get rid of them, they sometimes have the happy surprise of selling them for more than they bought them. Indeed, under the impetus of Arnaud Brunel, in 2000, the Tectona group took the turn of contemporary art, surfing, like others, on this image of a high-end outdoor combining know-how with the talent of designers, confirmed or emerging.
Design and outdoor
As early as 1992, Tectona started designing with Andrée Putman, who designed a bench for the Bordeaux Museum of Contemporary Art. The brand soon surrounded itself with designers with very distinct styles. In 2011, Tectona launched an international competition open to young designers in collaboration with the Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL), an institution that radiates on all angles of high creation worldwide.
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Among those who are shaking up the brand’s lines are the Franco-Swiss Julie Richoz, who won a prize at the Villa Noailles in Hyères, and Isabelle Baudraz, winner of the competition organized by Tectona, whose highly modular bench was chosen by the Picasso Museum.
In 2017, Tectona celebrates its fortieth anniversary with an international competition for young designers to design a table and chair set made of teak. Eleven designers were selected from around the world and the prize was awarded to the Thai duo, Thinkk Studio, for the creation of Batten, which has since been edited by the brand.
In 2020, the brand launched the Grande Ecurie-Versailles bench, created in partnership with the Château de Versailles and whose style is based on that of Jacob-Desmalter, the main supplier to the palaces in the mid-18th century. In 2022, the group unveils the Bamboo collection, made of aluminum, a durable material, colored black by the powder coating technique which reinforces its robustness to shocks.
Featured photo : © Tectona
