Sormani SpA was founded in Arosio (Como, Italy) in 1961 by Luigi Sormani, when he was twenty-nine years old. His father Giovanni was a furniture dealer, at a time when carpenters in the Brianza area worked hard to produce the so called "beautiful little rooms": coherent sets of masterly techniques of cabinet-making and traditional craftsmanship. Luigi revealed a very precocious talent for furnishing and, at the age of seventeen, he moved to Milan to decorate the houses of wealthy people leaving in the first circle of the Navigli and within a few years he opened a shop in Corso di Porta Romana, in the Crocetta neighborhood.
The young Sormani ("Luigino", as his masters Giò Ponti and Carlo De Carli affectionately called him) did not believe that the artisan production, which he knew well, could satisfy the desire for industrialization and modernity that pervaded Italy after the war. His dream was to be able to produce furniture that could be a revolution in the way Italians lived. In order to do that he pursued an interest in avant-garde structures based on the German model. Sormani founded the first fully automated furniture factory, equipped with the most advanced machinery for the time. In addition he perceived the importance of computers to streamline processes. Using innovative materials and techniques, the factory in Arosio (Como) created modular furniture, functional pieces, chairs, lamps, carpets and accessories which became part of the history of Italian design for thirty years until closing in the late 80s
