Fantini

The faucet as architectural gesture. Fantini doesn't make plumbing, it makes design objects that happen to run water. Three generations on the shores of Lake Orta, the world's best designers, manufacturing that never leaves Pella.

Italian tapware has its capitals. Around Lake Orta, in Piedmont, between Novara and Borgomanero, a handful of manufacturers turned a utilitarian object into a design object. Fantini is one of the oldest and most respected.

In 1946, brothers Giovanni and Ersilio Fantini founded their workshop in Pella, a village of a few hundred souls on the lakeshore. The location wasn't accidental, the region concentrates ancient metalworking expertise, specialized subcontractors, a culture of mechanical precision.

Three generations later, Daniela Fantini runs the company. The lake is still there, so is the factory. Piero Lissoni even designed the new headquarters in 2019, an architectural gesture that says everything about the brand's positioning. When your building is designed by the same person who designs your faucets, coherence is total.

Collaborations are the heart of the Fantini model. Naoto Fukasawa, Piero Lissoni, Marcel Wanders, each brings their vision, Fantini brings the craft. The AK/25 Aboutwater collection (with Boffi) won the Compasso d'Oro, Italy's most prestigious industrial design award.

Every piece is manufactured in Pella. Not assembled, manufactured. From raw brass to final chrome, through machining, polishing, inspection. That's what justifies the price, and that's what separates Fantini from brands that design in Italy and produce elsewhere.

The brand remains confidential outside the world of architecture and interior design. No mass advertising, no big-box presence. You discover Fantini through an architect or in a specialized showroom, which, for a faucet at this price, is probably the right distribution.