Nicolò Fanzago and Andrea Mulloni on Aom without polyurethane, circularity as a tender advantage, and the point at which sustainability in the contract market moves from promise to proof.
Polyurethane is almost invisible in the furniture industry — and almost everywhere. In upholstery, comfort layers, familiar construction methods. With Aom, Arper presents a system that does without precisely that. Not a small material change, then, but an intervention in a construction logic that has shaped the industry for a long time.
At the same time, the requirements in the contract market are shifting. Architects, planners and public clients are no longer asking only about form, colour, price and availability. They are asking about emissions, recyclability, documentation, supply-chain data and, soon, digital product passports. Sustainability is becoming less of a narrative and more of an infrastructure.
Nicolò Fanzago, Head of Product & Design at Arper, and Andrea Mulloni, Head of Sustainability at Arper, on comfort without foam, data as a competitive advantage and the new severity of sustainable contract business.
furnomics: Aom debuted at Salone 2026 as a polyurethane-free upholstered system. Is this primarily a material change — or an attack on a rather comfortable industry habit?
Nicolò Fanzago: Aom represents a challenge that was entirely rooted in design. Its development did not require the invention of new materials; rather, it called for a new and more innovative way of applying materials already available to us.
furnomics: So not a new miracle material, but a different architecture?
Nicolò Fanzago: Yes, at the core of the project is the replacement of traditional polyurethane foams, which remain one of the most problematic materials in our industry from a recyclability standpoint, with a completely new product architecture combining expanded polypropylene, Breathair and polyester wadding, three materials that are all fully recyclable.
furnomics: That sounds like a simple sentence — and like a lot of work behind it.
Nicolò Fanzago: Absolutely! Bringing this vision to life meant taking on a challenge that was both highly complex and deeply stimulating. This was made possible by the close collaboration between Arper, designer Jean-Marie Massaud, with whom we have shared a partnership spanning more than two decades, and the suppliers involved in the development process.
furnomics: That requires everyone involved to let go of old routines. Was that the difficult part?
Nicolò Fanzago: What mattered was the willingness of everyone around the table to question established construction methods and long-standing industry conventions. That collective openness was essential to navigating a process defined by experimentation, testing and continuous refinement.
furnomics: Breathair is at the heart of the project. Is this the new foam?
Nicolò Fanzago: From a materials perspective, Breathair is undoubtedly at the heart of the project. This 3D polyester thermoplastic elastomer structure is central to the product’s ergonomics and comfort, and serves as a genuine alternative to polyurethane foam.
furnomics: But not simply a substitute?
Nicolò Fanzago: No, it would be reductive to describe Breathair as a universal one-to-one substitute for polyurethane across all applications. As Aom demonstrates, materials of this kind require products to be conceived around their specific properties, with a design approach capable of unlocking their full potential.
furnomics: Can this approach nevertheless be transferred to other Arper families?
Nicolò Fanzago: Yes, the project opens up important possibilities for the future. At the same time, it makes clear that scalability depends not on simple substitution, but on a broader rethinking of product architecture.
furnomics: Catifa Carta with PaperShell, the recycled-PP Catifa (RE) 46, Breathair padding, Aom’s separable EPP-and-elastomer construction — Arper has built a material vocabulary around circularity. When does that become more than product marketing?
Andrea Mulloni: Arper’s real competitive advantage in public tenders isn’t aesthetic – it’s documentary. We work to provide robust third-party environmental documentation to show how serious we are about circularity.
furnomics: Documentation as a competitive advantage — less sexy, perhaps, but highly relevant.
Andrea Mulloni: That it is. Where this isn’t possible — for example with SKU-specific calculations like LCAs – we have taught ourselves to produce sound, replicable data internally. That is increasingly necessary if you want to build on shared knowledge while maintaining the customer-service mindset the contract market requires.
furnomics: Is there already pressure from the customer side?
Andrea Mulloni: We already have end clients designing spaces around total emission thresholds, which is a challenge in itself, but also a strong push towards innovation.
furnomics: What does that mean internally?
Andrea Mulloni: The direction is clear to us: be as strict as possible with eco-design guidelines, adopt new low-emission materials, accept and minimise the risk that comes with them, and think in terms of continuous development.
furnomics: A new REACH limit for formaldehyde takes effect in August 2026. How hard will that hit the contract furniture market?
Andrea Mulloni: That’s correct: From 6 August 2026, furniture and wood-based articles placed on the EU market must not exceed 0.062 mg/m³ formaldehyde emissions — half the current E1 threshold. That will expose manufacturers relying on conventional MDF or particleboard binders.
furnomics: And Arper?
Andrea Mulloni: Arper’s exposure is structurally limited. Our core seating portfolio is built around polypropylene shells, recycled PP, PaperShell, aluminium and steel — material families with no inherent formaldehyde risk. Catifa (RE) 46, for example, holds Greenguard Gold certification, with formaldehyde limits well below the incoming REACH threshold.
furnomics: Where does it still become critical?
Andrea Mulloni: The more relevant compliance question is in the wooden collections, where supplier-level testing should be prioritised ahead of August 2026.
furnomics: With the Digital Product Passport, this is not only about limits, but about data. How far along is Arper?
Andrea Mulloni: On the Digital Product Passport, the direction of travel is already clear. The data infrastructure now under evaluation — material composition, recycled content, disassembly instructions, GWP figures and supplier traceability — is precisely what Arper has been building through its EPD process certification and sustainability reporting.
furnomics: Catifa Carta already has a QR code. Is that already a step towards the product passport?
Andrea Mulloni: The QR code already shipping with Catifa Carta, which reveals composition, maintenance and disposal details, is structurally close to what a DPP requires. The main gap is standardisation, since DPPs will need to conform to a specific EU data scheme once the delegated act is published.
furnomics: What is now at the top of the internal list?
Andrea Mulloni: The priorities are clear: emission testing across any wood-based or adhesive-reliant products; supplier-level material data collection across the full portfolio; and formalising the take-back scheme already in development, since end-of-life operability will be a key DPP data point. The EPD infrastructure already in place means Arper is building from a stronger baseline than most contract furniture manufacturers.
furnomics: Arper describes Aom as bridging “the rigorous demands of the contract world and the human need for genuine, restorative relaxation”. That sounds like two languages in one product: compliance here, wellbeing there. Does that tension really exist internally?
Nicolò Fanzago: For Arper, this contrast – and the tension it implies – is only an apparent one. The people who inhabit private spaces and public environments are ultimately the same, and so are their needs, both functional and emotional.
furnomics: So there is no separation between the contract world and a residential feeling?
Nicolò Fanzago: We have always worked to soften the rigid boundaries between these worlds, focusing our efforts on people and treating the resolution of this perceived tension between technical performance, functional requirements and a product’s ability to create empathy and deliver wellbeing as an integral part of every project.
furnomics: Aom contains a lot of technology inside. Why should that not be visible?
Nicolò Fanzago: Aom is a good example: it is a product with a highly innovative and high-performing core, yet one that does not outwardly express this technical complexity through its aesthetic.
furnomics: What reaches the user?
Nicolò Fanzago: The innovations that meaningfully improve the product’s sustainability and manufacturing efficiency also translate directly into benefits for the user—breathability, lightness and freshness—while shaping an aesthetic that conveys comfort, softness and informality.
furnomics: Hospitality, lobby and lounge typologies clearly shape Arper’s current direction. Are these the growth segments for the next three to five years?
Nicolò Fanzago: Individual segments are not the primary focus of our attention. Spaces dedicated to hospitality – places for gathering, socialising and collaboration – have increasingly become the nerve centre across all sectors, acting as hubs for a growing range of activities and experiences.
furnomics: The workplace is becoming more hospitable, and hospitality more work-capable?
Nicolò Fanzago: Let me put it this way: workplace environments are no longer simply expected to support collaboration and interaction internally; they are also increasingly opening up to the communities around them. At the same time, as we know, hospitality and residential spaces have also become places of work.
furnomics: So the opportunity lies not in the segment, but in people’s behaviour?
Nicolò Fanzago: Exactly, for us the growth opportunity lies less in targeting specific segments than in understanding how people’s priorities within spaces are evolving. The real opportunity is in staying closely attuned to people, understanding their needs, and sharing a system of values that fosters identification and a sense of belonging. That, for us, is what will enable Arper to continue growing and improving over the coming years.
furnomics: Material transparency is regulated very differently in the US and Europe. The US relies more on voluntary standards such as Declare and HPD, while the EU is moving towards mandates. How do you bring these two logics together?
Andrea Mulloni: The practical reconciliation starts with recognising that the US and EU frameworks are asking for much of the same upstream information – material composition at ingredient level – through different institutional mechanisms.
furnomics: What exactly do HPD and Declare require?
Andrea Mulloni: HPD is a voluntary specification for reporting material contents and associated health hazards, widely used for LEED v4 compliance. Declare goes further by disclosing product contents by chemical name and CAS number, while also addressing origin and end of life. Both require manufacturers to map supply-chain chemistry in detail. In practice, so does the EU DPP.
furnomics: So anyone working cleanly for HPD or Declare is automatically preparing for the DPP?
Andrea Mulloni: The ESPR DPP framework will require lifecycle data including material origin, manufacturing processes and the presence of harmful substances. A manufacturer that has already built the ingredient-level supply-chain mapping needed for HPD or Declare has therefore done much of the data work the DPP will eventually require.
furnomics: Where does the difference lie?
Andrea Mulloni: The difference is in scheme, registry and enforceability, not in the underlying information. In the US, transparency is market-driven: HPDs help unlock LEED v4 credits and signal leadership to specifiers, but disclosure remains voluntary. In the EU, the trajectory is towards market access as a condition: the DPP makes product-level sustainability transparency a requirement rather than a differentiator.
furnomics: Two markets, one data core. Is that the most sensible path?
Andrea Mulloni: For a brand operating in both contexts, the most defensible approach is to build to the higher standard globally and communicate it as a single, values-based position rather than a compliance response. For Arper, that means using the DPP-readiness work now underway as the foundation for HPD and Declare documentation in the US, rather than running two parallel processes, and making the QR-code-linked composition data already shipping with Catifa Carta the visible proof point of that unified approach.
furnomics: Where is Arper not yet there?
Andrea Mulloni: The honest gap to acknowledge internally is that full HPD or Declare coverage across the Arper portfolio does not yet appear to be in place for all collections. Closing that gap is both a short-term specifier service improvement and the right preparation for a regulatory environment that is moving, on both sides of the Atlantic, in the same direction.
furnomics: Beyond Arper: what is a recent piece, building or designer’s work that you found genuinely good — and why did it work for you?
Nicolò Fanzago: My interest is drawn above all to initiatives that are genuinely looking ahead and are able to move beyond our industry’s tendency to become overly absorbed in celebrating its own past. In that sense, sustainability-led research matters not only for its potential positive impact on the environment we live in, but also because it remains one of the most concrete and meaningful drivers of innovation today.
furnomics: And how do you recognise that it is not just a short-lived sustainability gesture?
Nicolò Fanzago: The key word for me is coherence: the search for clear, transparent paths that help cut through the background noise created by the many superficial or short-lived initiatives that often crowd this space. In that respect, I think, for example, of the remarkable consistency of Emeco’s eighty-year journey, the inspiring 1kgCO2e exhibition by Emma Olbers, and the disruptive spirit of innovation represented by PaperShell.
Data cuts through design fog
Arper turns documentation into a competitive advantage
Nicolò Fanzago and Andrea Mulloni on Aom without polyurethane, circularity as a tender advantage, and the point at which sustainability in the contract market moves from promise to proof.
Polyurethane is almost invisible in the furniture industry — and almost everywhere. In upholstery, comfort layers, familiar construction methods. With Aom, Arper presents a system that does without precisely that. Not a small material change, then, but an intervention in a construction logic that has shaped the industry for a long time.
At the same time, the requirements in the contract market are shifting. Architects, planners and public clients are no longer asking only about form, colour, price and availability. They are asking about emissions, recyclability, documentation, supply-chain data and, soon, digital product passports. Sustainability is becoming less of a narrative and more of an infrastructure.
Nicolò Fanzago, Head of Product & Design at Arper, and Andrea Mulloni, Head of Sustainability at Arper, on comfort without foam, data as a competitive advantage and the new severity of sustainable contract business.
furnomics: Aom debuted at Salone 2026 as a polyurethane-free upholstered system. Is this primarily a material change — or an attack on a rather comfortable industry habit?
Nicolò Fanzago: Aom represents a challenge that was entirely rooted in design. Its development did not require the invention of new materials; rather, it called for a new and more innovative way of applying materials already available to us.
furnomics: So not a new miracle material, but a different architecture?
Nicolò Fanzago: Yes, at the core of the project is the replacement of traditional polyurethane foams, which remain one of the most problematic materials in our industry from a recyclability standpoint, with a completely new product architecture combining expanded polypropylene, Breathair and polyester wadding, three materials that are all fully recyclable.
furnomics: That sounds like a simple sentence — and like a lot of work behind it.
Nicolò Fanzago: Absolutely! Bringing this vision to life meant taking on a challenge that was both highly complex and deeply stimulating. This was made possible by the close collaboration between Arper, designer Jean-Marie Massaud, with whom we have shared a partnership spanning more than two decades, and the suppliers involved in the development process.
furnomics: That requires everyone involved to let go of old routines. Was that the difficult part?
Nicolò Fanzago: What mattered was the willingness of everyone around the table to question established construction methods and long-standing industry conventions. That collective openness was essential to navigating a process defined by experimentation, testing and continuous refinement.
furnomics: Breathair is at the heart of the project. Is this the new foam?
Nicolò Fanzago: From a materials perspective, Breathair is undoubtedly at the heart of the project. This 3D polyester thermoplastic elastomer structure is central to the product’s ergonomics and comfort, and serves as a genuine alternative to polyurethane foam.
furnomics: But not simply a substitute?
Nicolò Fanzago: No, it would be reductive to describe Breathair as a universal one-to-one substitute for polyurethane across all applications. As Aom demonstrates, materials of this kind require products to be conceived around their specific properties, with a design approach capable of unlocking their full potential.
furnomics: Can this approach nevertheless be transferred to other Arper families?
Nicolò Fanzago: Yes, the project opens up important possibilities for the future. At the same time, it makes clear that scalability depends not on simple substitution, but on a broader rethinking of product architecture.
furnomics: Catifa Carta with PaperShell, the recycled-PP Catifa (RE) 46, Breathair padding, Aom’s separable EPP-and-elastomer construction — Arper has built a material vocabulary around circularity. When does that become more than product marketing?
Andrea Mulloni: Arper’s real competitive advantage in public tenders isn’t aesthetic – it’s documentary. We work to provide robust third-party environmental documentation to show how serious we are about circularity.
furnomics: Documentation as a competitive advantage — less sexy, perhaps, but highly relevant.
Andrea Mulloni: That it is. Where this isn’t possible — for example with SKU-specific calculations like LCAs – we have taught ourselves to produce sound, replicable data internally. That is increasingly necessary if you want to build on shared knowledge while maintaining the customer-service mindset the contract market requires.
furnomics: Is there already pressure from the customer side?
Andrea Mulloni: We already have end clients designing spaces around total emission thresholds, which is a challenge in itself, but also a strong push towards innovation.
furnomics: What does that mean internally?
Andrea Mulloni: The direction is clear to us: be as strict as possible with eco-design guidelines, adopt new low-emission materials, accept and minimise the risk that comes with them, and think in terms of continuous development.
furnomics: A new REACH limit for formaldehyde takes effect in August 2026. How hard will that hit the contract furniture market?
Andrea Mulloni: That’s correct: From 6 August 2026, furniture and wood-based articles placed on the EU market must not exceed 0.062 mg/m³ formaldehyde emissions — half the current E1 threshold. That will expose manufacturers relying on conventional MDF or particleboard binders.
furnomics: And Arper?
Andrea Mulloni: Arper’s exposure is structurally limited. Our core seating portfolio is built around polypropylene shells, recycled PP, PaperShell, aluminium and steel — material families with no inherent formaldehyde risk. Catifa (RE) 46, for example, holds Greenguard Gold certification, with formaldehyde limits well below the incoming REACH threshold.
furnomics: Where does it still become critical?
Andrea Mulloni: The more relevant compliance question is in the wooden collections, where supplier-level testing should be prioritised ahead of August 2026.
furnomics: With the Digital Product Passport, this is not only about limits, but about data. How far along is Arper?
Andrea Mulloni: On the Digital Product Passport, the direction of travel is already clear. The data infrastructure now under evaluation — material composition, recycled content, disassembly instructions, GWP figures and supplier traceability — is precisely what Arper has been building through its EPD process certification and sustainability reporting.
furnomics: Catifa Carta already has a QR code. Is that already a step towards the product passport?
Andrea Mulloni: The QR code already shipping with Catifa Carta, which reveals composition, maintenance and disposal details, is structurally close to what a DPP requires. The main gap is standardisation, since DPPs will need to conform to a specific EU data scheme once the delegated act is published.
furnomics: What is now at the top of the internal list?
Andrea Mulloni: The priorities are clear: emission testing across any wood-based or adhesive-reliant products; supplier-level material data collection across the full portfolio; and formalising the take-back scheme already in development, since end-of-life operability will be a key DPP data point. The EPD infrastructure already in place means Arper is building from a stronger baseline than most contract furniture manufacturers.
furnomics: Arper describes Aom as bridging “the rigorous demands of the contract world and the human need for genuine, restorative relaxation”. That sounds like two languages in one product: compliance here, wellbeing there. Does that tension really exist internally?
Nicolò Fanzago: For Arper, this contrast – and the tension it implies – is only an apparent one. The people who inhabit private spaces and public environments are ultimately the same, and so are their needs, both functional and emotional.
furnomics: So there is no separation between the contract world and a residential feeling?
Nicolò Fanzago: We have always worked to soften the rigid boundaries between these worlds, focusing our efforts on people and treating the resolution of this perceived tension between technical performance, functional requirements and a product’s ability to create empathy and deliver wellbeing as an integral part of every project.
furnomics: Aom contains a lot of technology inside. Why should that not be visible?
Nicolò Fanzago: Aom is a good example: it is a product with a highly innovative and high-performing core, yet one that does not outwardly express this technical complexity through its aesthetic.
furnomics: What reaches the user?
Nicolò Fanzago: The innovations that meaningfully improve the product’s sustainability and manufacturing efficiency also translate directly into benefits for the user—breathability, lightness and freshness—while shaping an aesthetic that conveys comfort, softness and informality.
furnomics: Hospitality, lobby and lounge typologies clearly shape Arper’s current direction. Are these the growth segments for the next three to five years?
Nicolò Fanzago: Individual segments are not the primary focus of our attention. Spaces dedicated to hospitality – places for gathering, socialising and collaboration – have increasingly become the nerve centre across all sectors, acting as hubs for a growing range of activities and experiences.
furnomics: The workplace is becoming more hospitable, and hospitality more work-capable?
Nicolò Fanzago: Let me put it this way: workplace environments are no longer simply expected to support collaboration and interaction internally; they are also increasingly opening up to the communities around them. At the same time, as we know, hospitality and residential spaces have also become places of work.
furnomics: So the opportunity lies not in the segment, but in people’s behaviour?
Nicolò Fanzago: Exactly, for us the growth opportunity lies less in targeting specific segments than in understanding how people’s priorities within spaces are evolving. The real opportunity is in staying closely attuned to people, understanding their needs, and sharing a system of values that fosters identification and a sense of belonging. That, for us, is what will enable Arper to continue growing and improving over the coming years.
furnomics: Material transparency is regulated very differently in the US and Europe. The US relies more on voluntary standards such as Declare and HPD, while the EU is moving towards mandates. How do you bring these two logics together?
Andrea Mulloni: The practical reconciliation starts with recognising that the US and EU frameworks are asking for much of the same upstream information – material composition at ingredient level – through different institutional mechanisms.
furnomics: What exactly do HPD and Declare require?
Andrea Mulloni: HPD is a voluntary specification for reporting material contents and associated health hazards, widely used for LEED v4 compliance. Declare goes further by disclosing product contents by chemical name and CAS number, while also addressing origin and end of life. Both require manufacturers to map supply-chain chemistry in detail. In practice, so does the EU DPP.
furnomics: So anyone working cleanly for HPD or Declare is automatically preparing for the DPP?
Andrea Mulloni: The ESPR DPP framework will require lifecycle data including material origin, manufacturing processes and the presence of harmful substances. A manufacturer that has already built the ingredient-level supply-chain mapping needed for HPD or Declare has therefore done much of the data work the DPP will eventually require.
furnomics: Where does the difference lie?
Andrea Mulloni: The difference is in scheme, registry and enforceability, not in the underlying information. In the US, transparency is market-driven: HPDs help unlock LEED v4 credits and signal leadership to specifiers, but disclosure remains voluntary. In the EU, the trajectory is towards market access as a condition: the DPP makes product-level sustainability transparency a requirement rather than a differentiator.
furnomics: Two markets, one data core. Is that the most sensible path?
Andrea Mulloni: For a brand operating in both contexts, the most defensible approach is to build to the higher standard globally and communicate it as a single, values-based position rather than a compliance response. For Arper, that means using the DPP-readiness work now underway as the foundation for HPD and Declare documentation in the US, rather than running two parallel processes, and making the QR-code-linked composition data already shipping with Catifa Carta the visible proof point of that unified approach.
furnomics: Where is Arper not yet there?
Andrea Mulloni: The honest gap to acknowledge internally is that full HPD or Declare coverage across the Arper portfolio does not yet appear to be in place for all collections. Closing that gap is both a short-term specifier service improvement and the right preparation for a regulatory environment that is moving, on both sides of the Atlantic, in the same direction.
furnomics: Beyond Arper: what is a recent piece, building or designer’s work that you found genuinely good — and why did it work for you?
Nicolò Fanzago: My interest is drawn above all to initiatives that are genuinely looking ahead and are able to move beyond our industry’s tendency to become overly absorbed in celebrating its own past. In that sense, sustainability-led research matters not only for its potential positive impact on the environment we live in, but also because it remains one of the most concrete and meaningful drivers of innovation today.
furnomics: And how do you recognise that it is not just a short-lived sustainability gesture?
Nicolò Fanzago: The key word for me is coherence: the search for clear, transparent paths that help cut through the background noise created by the many superficial or short-lived initiatives that often crowd this space. In that respect, I think, for example, of the remarkable consistency of Emeco’s eighty-year journey, the inspiring 1kgCO2e exhibition by Emma Olbers, and the disruptive spirit of innovation represented by PaperShell.