Lotus chair was introduced at this year’s Milan furniture fair. Other notable designs are van der Kley’s Isobel sofa (2003) and Globus (2007), a globe that opens into a compact work station. Artifort has also brought in design talent from other countries, including Diplomat U.K. and Jasper Morrison of England and Patrick Norguet of France. It has also begun producing tables and case goods. Most of the newer designs are recognizable as Artifort, without appearing derivative of their classic ‘60s and ‘70s products.

In spite of all the changes, Artifort still feels like a family company. Its simple corrugated metal factory building, which it has occupied since 1975, sits among farm fields in Lanaken, Belgium, just across the border from Maastricht. (Only upholstery is done here; fabrication of bases, the wood and foam work and the metal painting are done in a second factory in Schijndel, the Netherlands.)

Marketing director Beaumont, a treasure trove of company memory, has slowly been assembling an Artifort archive, which is now chock-full of photographs, miniature models, prototypes and original manuals and brochures. In response to market demand, she is also building up the reupholstery department. “In Holland, a lot of people know the value of a product and they want to reupholster it,” she says. “We do all the reupholstery here with the original Artifort material.” Recently, she organized Pierre Paulin festivities to celebrate his 80th birthday and his 50 years of designing for Artifort. It was an occasion to reissue his Le Chat lounge chair, Mushroom ottoman and ABCD sofa (1968), and to offer all 14 of his pieces now in production in a recreation of Larsen’s mod Momentum fabric. Artifort is also offering Paulin’s furniture in three other Larsen fabrics from the 1970s. As the vintage market has heated up, interest has grown in acquiring older Artifort designs and, encouraged by the management at Lande, Beaumont has been increasingly busy overseeing reissues. But, she emphasizes, “we do not want to live only for the old days.”
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