Our story with MCZ
Envisioning the future of heating
through a trustful partnership
It all started in 2008...
Today MCZ Group is one of the leading European players in the field of biomass heating. We like to think we contributed to their enormous success as we've designed for them more than 30 products in less than 15 years.
The encounter
When Emo was just an idea, not a company or an office yet, the encounter with MCZ happened. They were one of the first companies manufacturing pellet stoves and we were a bunch of designers wanting to make something special together. MCZ had the intuition they needed design and we needed a client.
We started by working in-house, our desks were in their headquarters, and – when it was financially feasible – we moved out and founded Emo design. Looking back now at those incredible times we realise that with the bravery and the humbleness of the beginners we initiated a revolution that changed an entire sector forever.
“We started by working in-house, our desks were in their headquarters, and – when it was financially feasible – we moved out and founded Emo design.”
Pellet stoves had always looked like heating machines, nobody had thought yet that – like fireplaces – they could play an aesthetic role in the interior design of the domestic environment. Well, we did. Actually, it was our first thought. Why on earth one had to place an ugly machine in their living room?
There is nothing quite like gathering around fire, watching the flames, sense the warmth that fills the room. Fire has always been the heart of the home with its almost magical power, drawing people in and offering a sense of calm.
Like a fireplace adds an element of elegance and sophistication to just about any room in a way nothing else can, we thought that pellet stoves should do the same, therefore we staged fire in the most contemporary and minimalistic way.
"Through our work, fire has simply been relocated to centre stage in the most contemporary and minimalist way possible."
From simplicity to clarity
As a consequence of such clear and simple idea, Toba was born and won an IF Award right away, becoming the first pellet stove awarded a design prize and marking a turning point for the whole sector.
2010 - Today
Toba is characterised by a ceramic case around the combustion chamber framing the flame at its heart. We brought back fire where it deserved to be – with a contemporary twist – and what once was just a heating machine turned into an iconic design piece.
Toba paved the road to a second innovation: Mood
Mood was the first rounded shaped stove developed for the pellet sector. This time, working harder with R&D and production, we manage two more steps up the ladder of innovation: reduced size but wider and deeper firebox. Mood can be placed in tiny spaces and most of what one sees is flame: better than a fireplace.
Mood is now heating and furnishing homes around the world and – after 10 years – is still one of the best selling design products.
At this point – right after 2012 – the whole sector was flying and it was then that the northern markets started to ask for pellet stoves to be placed inside old fireplaces. We took up the challenge and designed another best seller series, the mini stoves: Cute, Thema and Kama.
The mini pellet stoves series is characterised by reduced dimensions, but above all: irony. Irony in the way we used old fashioned traditional materials and in the way the contemporary look references the classical style of cast iron stoves.
Being MCZ a group of many companies, we had the opportunity to design for all of them, including products like barbecues, and learning that a long standing relationship can certainly start with being in the right place at the right time, but after that nothing is fortuitous anymore.
Seneca centuries ago wrote: luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
The knowledge of sector and users we gained from the beginning paired with MCZ capability to seize the opportunities the market presented, made this match one of the most successful in the history of our studio. The products we designed undoubtedly increased the company turnover of millions of euros every year and positioned MCZ as the undisputed market leader that we all know today.
The partnership with MCZ in
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