Ninety Years of Bonaldo, One Night in Bangkok

On 1 October 2026, Bonaldo Space by OL Atelier on Sukhumvit 39 hosted The Legacy of Motion, a private evening marking the 90th anniversary of Bonaldo, the Italian furniture house founded in 1936 by blacksmith Giovanni Vittorio Bonaldo in Villanova di Camposampiero, in Italy’s Padua region.

Nine chairs, nine decades

At the heart of the evening was The Series of Years: nine editions of the Cross Lounge Chair by Belgian designer Alain Gilles, commissioned by Bonaldo, one for every decade since 1936. Each is dressed in materials, upholstery and finish drawn from one decade of Bonaldo’s own history, and each carries a solid brass plaque bearing Alain Gilles’ signature and the words “Made in Italy. Understood in Bangkok.”

Chair No. I — 2016–2026: The Synthesis — was unveiled that night. Finished in Mat Bronze with a textured, multi-tonal fabric, it was fitted with its plaque by Alberto Bonaldo, third-generation owner of the house, by hand, in front of the room. It will remain permanently at Bonaldo Space. It is not for sale.

“In ninety years, we have never let a curator choose who receives our work. Tonight, we did.”

— Alberto Bonaldo

Chosen, not bought

Through 2028, OL Atelier holds the exclusive curatorial presentation rights for The Series of Years in Thailand. The remaining eight chairs are being completed individually. Each will go to someone chosen because that decade is already theirs — a birth year, a parent’s story, a memory. There is no waiting list and no application.

“Ninety years isn’t a number you put on a banner. It’s nine decades, and every one of them looked and felt different. Alain gave each of them its own chair. My job is deciding who’s ready to hold one.”

— Sairoong “Sally” P., Curator, OL Atelier

Three storytellers, one city

The evening was told through a designer, a chef and musicians. Guests arrived to silhouettes of Bangkok — tuk-tuks, street-food stalls, temples — moving across the walls in projection mapping, as if ninety years of Bonaldo had just arrived in the city.

Alain Gilles then appeared on screen, his signature having travelled ahead of him.

Pistachio gelato was spun to order in front of guests, before master ranat player Ajarn Khun In Narong Tosanga played alongside Italian-style opera sung by Dr. Fueanglada Prawang Carlson.

Throughout the night, the food came from Chef Andy Yang, Thailand’s first US Michelin-starred chef (Rhong-Tiam, New York), who read Bonaldo’s Italian heritage through a Thai lens — from village betel leaf to a parting gift of salted caramel pistachio brittle fused with kayasart, the Thai harvest-festival sweet, presented as a pezzo da museo: a museum piece you are permitted to eat.

Visit

Chair No. I can be seen at Bonaldo Space by OL Atelier, 29 Sukhumvit 39, Wattana, Bangkok 10110. For anyone who feels a decade already belongs to them, the Curator offers one-to-one conversations about all nine decades. Visits by appointment: +66 96 880 9898 · LINE @olivialiving

Discover The Series of Years →