Kubikoff Srl

Its birth “Kubikoff Srl” - a young company, but with a fast growing popularity in the field of furniture, it preserves the memory and traditions of the original philosophy of Aleksander Kubikov, designer and architect, to whom the company owes its name. The story of the company's creation deserves to be told. The founders are two brothers: Matteo and Gino Lemson, Dutch by birth, ever fascinated by the history of furniture, and always searching for samples of antiques, vintage items, designs and manuscripts. Fate decided that the brothers should fall upon a manuscript in a shop in Anvers, Belgium, and, driven by curiosity, they decided to acquire it immediately.They then discovered that the manuscript contained designs and notes, in German, taken by one of the students of the Russian furniture designer, Aleksander Kubikov, who lived in Moscow at the beginning of the 20th century. He was a victim of the repression during the Stalinist period, due to his bold, progressive and avant-guard ideas, he emerged between the 19th and the 20th century in the field of wood and metal furniture design. Any form of innovation was, in fact, persecuted in the young Bolshevik state.It is possible that the originality and uniqueness of the unusual, bold and abstract shapes, combined with the elements of comfort and functionality, so distant from the samples of common furniture, generated the evidence of guilt of their maker. Aleksander Kubikov was executed as an enemy of the state, and German spy, sharing in the fate of many who, like him, refused to abandon their artistic vision and conform to the standards of taste imposed by the dictatorship.Those notes represented the only proof that the Kubikov had succeded in founding his own workshop, and train a few students.We choose to believe that one of them was able to leave the country, before meeting the same end as his teacher. So, it seems that, thanks to this student, the manuscript, containing the teachings Kubikovs imparted upon his students, integrated with calculations, designs and graphical images, traveled out of Russia. The fate of the author of these notes, remains unknown, but the story and graphic-engeneeristic ideas of his teacher, contained within the notes, inspired the Lemson brothers, who produced a few test samples, and were successful in creating the company that today carries the name Kubikoff. When, in 2004, Gino and Matthieu moved to Italy to found “Kubikoff Srl”, in the confusion of the move, some boxes, containing devices and documents, were lost. Among these documents was the folder with the precious manuscript, which the Lemson brothers hope can be returned to them someday.