Page 44 - Bilancio Sostenibilità Ratti 2020_en

Chapter 3
Material becomes creation 43

● Product innovation: that involve both internal processes as well
this is based on the solid foundations of Ratti’s as manufacturing and external processes,
recognised supremacy in stylistic and creative whether upstream or downstream of the current
innovation. Its range of action extends to new industrial perimeter. In such an environment Innovation in Ratti
contributes

materials, to organic-based fibres and to new Ratti’s production process is subject to the to bringing about
products, including those originating from requests and changes required by the “Advanced a corporate strategic
circular economy initiatives, to functionalisation. Manufacturing” model (better known by the design for a company
This context also includes actions orientated at name “Industria 4.0”), which marks the transition that is sustainable,
enhancing the cultural resources of the business from automated manufacturing to digital and digital, circular, a
which, as the centre of the Ratti world, express intelligent manufacturing. leader in design,
themselves most obviously and recognisably in With regard to digitalisation, the company is continually seeking
the accumulated heritage of the Company. subject to attention, interest and action with to broaden
A vital resource for product innovation, the Ratti regard to predictive maintenance, traceability and develop its offer,

archives contain over one million items including and artificial intelligence. Of no less importance, highly reactive

fabrics, paper designs and digital files. in such an environment, are the initiatives which and proactive
in its relations
have been undertaken with suppliers in a context with customers and
● Processes and Advanced Manufacturing: of cooperative research. These are aimed at the market.
this relates to the development of projects improving technology and developing plant

Antonio Ratti: a patron with a vision

Beauty provides an infinite source Museum of Modern Art, the centres open to the public inside
of creative stimuli that recount Metropolitan Museum of Art in an art gallery. It is perfectly
a freedom of expression that New York, Palazzo Grassi in Venice, equipped for research and for the
avoids banality and overcomes Palazzo Reale and the Padiglione conservation of fabrics. November
preconceptions. An archive of d’Arte Contemporanea (pavilion of 1998 saw the opening of the
images, designs and colours that contemporary art) in Milan. Museo Tessile (textile museum)
are values infused in the DNA of Blessed with a heightened of the Antonio Ratti Foundation
the company and its founder proclivity for innovation and – subsequently renamed Museo
non-industrial research, in 1985 Studio del Tessuto. This museum
Nominated Cavaliere del Antonio Ratti created, in Como, the houses the collection of antique
Lavoro (knight) in 1972 and Foundation bearing his name. The fabrics that he collected with
appointed Honorary Trustee of foundation is entirely dedicated to passion and foresight throughout
the Metropolitan Museum of Art cultural and historical research in the whole of his life.
in New York, Antonio Ratti was the world of textiles (a collection of The collection is now looked after,
one of the greatest exemplars ancient fabrics, themed exhibitions with the same passion, by his
of Italian entrepreneurship, in and fora), and to the promotion of daughter Annie Ratti.
addition to being one of the the most talented visual artists.
most enlightened patrons, both On the back of this initiative
nationally and internationally. His Antonio Ratti decided, in 1995,

search for beauty went beyond to finance, at the Metropolitan
his passion for silk, the fulcrum Museum of Art in New York,
of his business activities, to a centre set up to conserve,
embrace the world of art in all restore and catalogue the textile
its manifestations, and his name collections owned by the museum.
was linked with some of the most And so the Antonio Ratti Textile
prestigious cultural institutions, Center was established – it is,
including the Guggenheim, the today, one of the most significant