Casa Italia - Casa Italia

A timeless icon of Italian uniqueness

With its bow facing forward, the building maintains its elegance, its recognized authority and uniqueness over the years.

The High Point building was designed by architect Mario Bellini, one of the most renowned Italian architects and designers. The design of the Natuzzi Building reflects his elegant and functional approach, combining clean lines with refined materials to create a space that embodies aesthetic perfection and uniqueness. Inaugurated in 1998, it is a futuristic building shaped like a ship, symbolizing a piece of Pasquale Natuzzi’s history—his journey across the ocean to conquer the American market. The building is defined by its “transparency,” a tribute to a key value in the entrepreneur’s work.

The ship-shaped building

The skillful use of steel for the structure, bronze for the exterior cladding, and wood and color for the interiors define clean geometries, crafted by those who can conceive architecture as a malleable space, down to the smallest details, as if it were a design object. A water basin, placed along the large curved wall, organizes the exterior layout and, with a touch of irony, recalls and completes the image of the ship ready to set sail.

Inside, a gallery about 65 feet high, which captures the sunlight, runs through the entire building like a great cut. To organize this “dramatic” space, a dense series of pillars covered in rolled birch wood has been placed. The pillars, together with the light glass walkways connecting the two parts of the building, are the main protagonists of the space.

The investment in this new building, an important asset for the further development of the company on the US market, took place 5 years after Natuzzi SpA was listed on the New York stock exchange (NYSE: NTZ).

Architectural Mastery

An additional defining element of the showroom’s interior is the flooring, the result of an analysis aimed at finding the best way to display and enhance the products. Bellini conceived a type of flooring “independent” of any style considerations, indifferent to the boldest color combinations. The final element that adds comfort and pleasure to the building is the spacious terrace, characterized by a continuation of the beam-pillar system of the gallery. In this work, we can see the profound contemporaneity of Bellini’s design, defined by a style that is based on continuous experimentation.

“We are Italians and proud of it. We live in a country with an immense heritage of culture, art, history and landscape, and as manufacturers we have long taken inspiration from the beauty that has always surrounded us. In Casa Italia we are working to share that beauty with High Point, drawing on a legacy that only Italy can offer and a heritage without equal anywhere else in the world.”

Pasquale Natuzzi

The Natuzzi Building at High Point, NC officially opened its doors on 23 April 1998 at 5.35 p.m.

In the Natuzzi strategy of the late 1990s this building was a platform for the launch of new products, for establishing relationships with customers in the wholesale channel during the most important trade fair in the world, for consolidating the company’s leadership and managing the North American market. After its opening on that sunny afternoon in April 1998, this ship-shaped building would spend the next 25 years navigating through often choppy waters, dealing with many major transformations but always heading towards the future with strong strategic leadership and an administrative process consistent with its values, as guaranteed by Pasquale Natuzzi, his family and the company management.

Today, the doors of the building have opened wider to make room for a collective project: Casa Italia, created in alignment with its original purpose to share beauty with High Point, drawing on a legacy that only Italy can offer and a heritage without equal anywhere else in the world.