This simple question has been our starting point for conceiving the first collection, giving us food for thought and allowing us to free ourselves from limitations imposed by market and style trends, reference points, and standard patterns.
All that surrounds us in our home is much more than just a piece of furniture, it is our traveling companion, something that once entered our home, stays with us all our life, establishing with us an intimate and personal relationship that reflects our idea of beauty. It is a presence that ages slowly with us, taking on day after day that unique patina of time. Choosing something that will live with us in our home can be a difficult task, as it requires a delicate balance between style and function, heart and mind. Such choices must reflect our personality in order to become aesthetically and psychologically pleasing.
It is precisely for this reason that people are at the center of our thoughts and our interest: for their ways of living, their desires, and the changes brought about by changing times and habits, factors that influence our needs and consequently what and how we should approach our projects.
OUR APPROACH TO PROJECTS KNOWS NO LIMIT AS TO MATERIALS, TECHNOLOGY, AND FORM
We have thought of objects that are very different from each other in terms of approach to design, type, and materials. Sometimes worlds apart from each other, they can live well together and enter with ease houses of different styles, adding character to the space and breaking the routine.
The objects are free from the obsession to adhere to a certain style, deliberately denying mannerisms and formalisms. The collection is made up of heterogeneous and visionary pieces, leading characters of the domestic scene.
A journey that started from looking at our native land with new eyes, the land which seems suspended in time and untouched by modernity, but which appears to a careful observer as authentic and having a rich heritage of excellent craftsmanship handed down from generation to generation, the highest expression of Italian know-how.
A journey looking within ourselves, too; a moment of reflection on what we would like to have in our home and on contemporary living.
A project that continues today keeping up its initial spirit, growing richer with every step, evolving with each experience, offering new visions and new inspirations; a path passing through places and times, reinterpreting the present.
We conceive and create products in which design and the expressive force of natural materials become an organic whole, a combination of space and nature.
WORKING WITH NATURAL MATERIALS BY HAND, WE KNOW THAT EACH PIECE IS UNIQUE AND THAT EVERY PRODUCT WILL BE DIFFERENT FROM THE NEXT
Nature speaks in many voices, from soft murmurs to disruptive noise. It is a tireless soul that changes with each encounter; revolutionizes its existence without losing itself, exuding its magnificent power even in the most delicate gestures.
No industry can replicate what we create, because we remain bound to production principles where nature, weather, climate, and the seasons still play a vital role in the final result, and where the working process has ancient traditions in creating excellence.
The Metaphysics of Beauty
Henge’s world is incredibly rich of unique materials
How Italians Sound: behind our products and beyond the Design industry.
From material search to a design trademark success
HENGE is the successful story of a young company that turned the search for materials into its trademark in the world of design. The project came to life following the founder Paolo Tormena’s desire to explore topics linked to his passions for materials and rare making, precious finish, extraordinary dimensions and combinations. The project emerged in just a few years, like a leading player in the universe of international design.
Together with the support of creatives as Massimo Castagna – architect and artistic director of the brand – Tormena and architect Isabella Genovese – Paolo’s travel companion in work and in life – were able to shape a vision that addresses peculiar aesthetic needs, to the point of creating a unique and unmistakable style for the brand.
Over the years, the brand has strengthened its cooperation with the well-known international design firm Yabu Pushelberg, and carried out projects in partnership with Dutch artist Maarten Baas, exhibiting in the most fascinating showrooms and flagship stores in capital cities all over the world and in important international residences as Hillside in Los Angeles, Casa Clara and Palazzo Del Sol in Miami.
The desire to experiment and create new elements has led HENGE to work with Ugo Cacciatori, jewellery and contemporary lifestyle designer. This has given life to a series of unmistakable products which embrace the brand’s DNA.
HENGE’s design stands out thanks to a daring and linear marking that imposes itself as a paradigm of contemporary refinement and elegance. All creations are destined to become protagonists, showing a strong personality and going beyond the fugacity of trends and fashion.
What we all decide to live with is much more than just a piece of furniture, it is a travel companion as once it is inside our homes, it accompanies us on our journey through life, creating a real and personal relationship with us, mirroring our concept of beauty. It ages with us, day after day taking on that look which only comes with time.
Our quest for what will keep us company in our homes is based on trying to strike a difficult balance between what the mind sees as a mere function, and what the heart shows us as beauty and passion. Such choices have to be in line with our personal feelings and keep us happy day after day.
IMAGE GALLERY
Paolo Tormena
Born in Valdobbiadene on June 28, 1967, he has always cultivated a passion for his territory and for the manufacturing excellence that characterizes it. His professional career started in the industrial field of Made in Italy furniture. In those years he meets various professionals in the Italian design field. Thanks to it, Paolo develops an awareness of beauty by getting in contact with successful architects, designers, and entrepreneurs. His path continues in 2011 with the birth of Henge which fully represents his vision: developing products with a timeless and customizable design that can be freely adapted to stylistically different houses.
Products that evolve over time and are not tied to any production cycles. At the root of the brand’s stylistic code is material research, which Paolo carries out directly by constantly traveling to places of great inspiration. Henge, today, is a container of Italian excellence. Local workshops and workers have been requalified and included in the project and vision of Paolo Tormena, returning to his land the value that itself has given to him.
Isabella Genovese
Born on January 13, 1973, she attended art school in Treviso. Her passion for design soon led her to collaborate with a local furniture and accessories company. She then attended the IUAV University of Venice, where she graduated in 2000.
Fascinated by interior design, Isabella initially collaborated with architectural firms specialized in projects for hotels, shops and exhibition spaces, and then began to cultivate personal projects. Isabella’s approach to design is based on creativity, functionality and a timeless character.
The meeting with Paolo, in private life and in business, boosted his passion for design, contributing to, what is today, the stylistic signature of Henge. In Henge she is involved in the product design phase, she leads the design department and develops the layouts of institutional spaces and showrooms of the most important dealers in the world. Above all, she adds her sensitivity to the details that characterize all the collections.
A PARADIGM OF CONTEMPORARY ELEGANCE
The brand searches for extraordinary materials from all over the world, looking for their expression, giving value to their natural characteristics and production criteria. It explores unique materials that can tell a story that doesn’t need to be told through words as it is understood simply by getting in contact with it. HENGE believes the core of Made in Italy is found in the small craft shops which maintain the secrets of Italian excellence.
Knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation to survive the modern era and industrial production. HENGE looks for these secrets and turns them into its trademark, adding the techniques impressed in the hands of the best Italian artisans to the vision of the great designers it works with.
The brand travels relentlessly and goes beyond physical and geographical borders. HENGE goes after materials and their stories with great instinct. It looks for the rarest and most expressive materials found in different cultures and in the furthest international landscapes, linking wood, stones, metals, glass, leather and fabric from the most distant parts of the world.
