Revolutionary sustainable furniture by Biosofa. 100% natural and certified materials.

Katrin

The special guest of today’s interview for Being Magazine is  Christine Sintermann. Christine and her husband Davide Barzaghi are founders of Biosofa. Biosofa is an Italian brand that produces eco-friendly sustainable furniture. Their furniture construction techniques are more than 500 years old! 7 generations of Davide’s family are furniture makers.

Hi Christine, thank you for taking part in this project. I am so happy to interview you and know more about Biosofa. Can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Christine

Hi there, I’m Christine Sintermann. I was born in Hamburg, Germany, and moved to Italy 12 years ago, where I met my husband and co-founder Davide. We have two children, Rafael, 10, and Eva, 9. I originally worked in fashion photography in Milano before founding Biosofa with Davide.

Katrin

How did the idea of opening Biosofa come to you? How was Biosofa born?

Christine

My husband Davide Barzaghi comes from a family that has been making furniture for seven generations. He has worked in the family business since the age of fourteen. He learned the craft and loved the beauty of the soft shapes and textures. 

When I was pregnant with our son Rafael, we talked about the future we wanted to give our children and the planet they would live on.

Davide looked at his own family business. At that time they made sofas like everyone else… with plywood, 40 kg of petrol-based foams, and a lot of synthetics. Most sofas are still made that way today, by the way.

It was clear to us that we wanted a healthy future for our children. So we changed the way we make sofas and started to produce sustainable furniture. 

We changed the way we make sofas and started to produce sustainable furniture.  

Katrin

Tell us 3 interesting, curious facts about your brand.

Christine

1- Some of our construction techniques are more than 500 years old.

2- All of our pieces are made in one Italian village and 5km around it. 

3- We are an Italian family company, truly. 5 family members work in the enterprise, and one of our suppliers is also an uncle of ours.

Katrin

Your brand is originally from Italy, right? Do you feel like in our days, people in Italy/Europe choose eco-friendly sustainable furniture?  

Christine

We feel that there is a big rise in requests for eco-friendly products right now, especially from the younger generations. But there is also a lot of uncertainty because there are so many different labels and certifications out there that all describe and promise different things. It is hard for a consumer to know what they are buying truly. And this has to change if we want to make real progress. The will is there, now politics have to do their part and impose standardization.

Katrin

Are you working just in Italy or all around the world? 

Christine

We produce only in our village. But we export all over the world.

Katrin

I want to quote from your website information about the composition of a standard sofa:

“- up to 40 kg of petrol-based plastic foam

– synthetics in upholstery and threads

– plastic joints and feet

– fire retardants and preserving chemicals”

This data is terrifying.

Christine, can you share with us why your products are different? How do people and the environment benefit from using high-quality sustainable furniture?

Our sustainability and all of our materials are independently checked and certified.

Christine

A classic polyurethane product is made of one block that just tires out and has to be thrown away. We on the other hand work in layers. Layers can be individually repaired and replaced if need be. All upholstery can be removed for cleaning, to maximize use.

We also work with solid wood, not glued plywood, and have replaced all plastic and foams with natural materials.

And we do not add chemicals, instead, we use materials that are naturally antibacterial and fire-resistant.

Like this, the sofas are more comfortable and last for a generation – or two. And if really at the end of their long long life, somebody needs to discard one of our products, they leave no residue at all in nature.

Our sustainability and all of our materials are independently checked and certified.

Katrin

Which materials do you use for your products? How do you make this choice?  

Christine

We use only 100% natural materials. Solid wood, Jute, 100% natural Latex, Linen and Cotton Felt, metal springs, Feathers (or a vegan alternative), and natural upholstery textiles like Linen, Wool, Cotton, Cotton Velvet, Cotton Satin, or even Silk.

Katrin

I am curious to know more about the manufacturing process too.  

Christine

Here is a link to a page where we explain the construction of our healthy furniture in detail: https://biosofa.com/pages/making-of-a-biosofa

Katrin

A lot of people face the problem. What to do with the old furniture, what furniture recycling looks like, and who I can call to get help. Can you advise people who want to do it the right way? 

Christine

This is tricky because furniture usually contains so many different elements, often glued together and the parts do not disassemble. That is why we produce only pieces that can be discarded without disassembling, as all parts of them will disintegrate and will liberate the consumer of that responsibility at the end of the product’s lifecycle.

If the piece is not broken, the best is to give it to charity to give it longer life still. We are working on a system to give old sofas to charity, but setting this up on several continents is not easy, we have a way to go yet.

Katrin

I want to ask a personal question. Which profession did you dream about when you were a kid?

Christine

I wanted to be a diplomat in Brussels for the European Union. I actually studied European politics and went as far as doing an internship at the European Commission. 

Katrin

I believe together we can change the world for the better. Do you?:) What is your personal view on the future of our planet? 

Christine

 I believe that the future of this planet is bright. Whatever we do as humans, life will survive, and it will be beautiful. – What we need to think about is not the planet, the planet will take care of itself.  

But the quality of life of our children and the future of us humans as a species is our responsibility indeed.