“Wood introduces a quality that goes beyond aesthetics” says Italian supplier

As vehicle interiors lean further into digitalisation, designers are increasingly looking to natural materials to restore warmth and human connection.

Among them, wood has a unique ability to shape how passengers feel inside a space. Studies into biophilic design suggest that wood’s appeal is more than visual. Its thermal warmth, tactile complexity and naturally occurring fractal grain patterns have all been linked to reduced physiological stress, helping create interiors that feel calmer, softer and more inviting.

Few companies understand this relationship better than Alpi. Founded in Italy in 1919, the company pioneered the industrialisation of reconstituted decorative wood, transforming timber from a traditional craft material into a highly controllable design surface. By combining advanced industrial processes with fine workmanship, Alpi enables designers to manipulate grain, colour and texture with remarkable precision, while preserving the natural character that gives wood its emotional resonance.

To explore wood’s evolving role in automotive interiors, Car Design News spoke with Alpi president Vittorio Alpi, the third generation leading the family business 

Car Design News: Can you tell us more about your projects within the automotive world?

Vittorio Alpi: In a car interior, designer-wood surfaces give the surroundings a warm, sensorial quality in an otherwise highly engineered setting. 

Over time, Alpi has become an established presence in the automotive sector, working with major international car makers. Our materials are currently present in a vast range of vehicles developed in the primary centres of automotive culture.

CDN: Why is your history important to you? 

VA: Our history is not an archive, but an evolving road. Since its founding, Alpi has worked toward redefining wood's role, shifting it from traditional material to design material. This passage has changed our way of operating. Not only do we transform the finished object, but also the material itself. Our identity is rooted in this continuity. It is material culture that crosses through project and process, and continues to develop over time. 

CDN: Why wood? What benefits do you think it brings to the look and feel of a vehicle? 

VA: Wood is our material, our departure point. It’s what we research. In the automotive context, wood introduces a quality that goes beyond aesthetics. It gives depth, variation and a relationship with light and touch. This is something that remains alive over time. In highly engineered settings, its presence contributes to constructing an equilibrium. We can influence wood's behaviour and appearance with precision while maintaining the component of naturalness that makes it so recognisable. 

CDN: How exactly do you process the wood as a raw material to make it ready to be implemented into a vehicle?

VA: The process begins with a tree-trunk. It is taken apart and put back together in a precise sequence of procedures – peeling, dyeing, composition, pressing and cutting. Each phase contributes to the definition of the final surface effect. The process means that the wood is no longer a mere material but a design project.

Grain, pattern and colour are not selected but constructed according to logical reasoning that is rooted partly in industrial technique and partly in design. The resulting surfaces can faithfully follow the complex geometric shapes of curved and three-dimensional elements, which is particularly relevant in the automotive industry. ALPIlignum is the synthesis of this approach, a material in which industrial reproducibility and a bespoke outcome are combined to broaden wood's expressive possibilities. 

The possibilities [of finishes and patterns] are almost endless and originate in constant experimentation. By designing the wood from the trunk onward, we develop patterns, colours and textures that differ according to the project. Exchange with designers is an integral part of this path. Each collaboration brings with it a specific approach, reflected in the way the material is interpreted. 

 CDN: Tell us more about your in-house research lab. What new ideas are you working on that you can tell us about?

VA: Research is the core of our work. It is developed as a continuous comparison between different approaches. The in-house research laboratory is an actual factory in miniature, a pilot plant where each process and each machine is perfectly reproduced on a small scale. It is a catalyst of ideas. It's where everything starts. Here, we explore the material, test expressive qualities and study new technical effects. It condenses conceptual studies and formal, structural and aesthetic experimentation. Thanks to huge investments in research and development and the exploration of new trends in style and types of product, we are able to offer the market ever new concepts and design ideas. 

At the 2026 Salone del Mobilewe presented new evolutions of our material in a display of two complementary moods. One was more atmospheric and the other was more structured and pure. 

CDN: Interesting, tell us more.

VA: In Alpi Aurora, Yabu Pushelberg interpreted the veneer surface as a perceptive field. In the Purple variant, the colour develops in deep transitions of violet, blue and petroleum green, which traverse the material in gradual stages, creating a surface in continual transformation. For Aurora Natural, as the name implies, the same texture is built using neutral tones ranging from brown to beige. Another wood by Yabu Pushelberg is Alpi Birch, a rereading of birch tree-bark, where the grain creates a nature-inspired streaked motif. Its different colourways offer varying intensities of contrast and luminosity while maintaining overall harmony. 

In parallel, Piero Lissoni worked in a more minimalist direction. With the new Alpi Xilo Acacia, he focused on a familiar wood type and reinterpreted it by means of a heat treatment to enhance chromatic depth and textural interest. And then there is Alpi Microline, a uniform, discreet surface. Seen from close up, the veneer reveals a pattern of very thin lines crossing through the wood at regular intervals. 

CDN: Tell us more about the sustainability of your production methods? 

VA: Sustainability is an integral part of our modus operandi. The ALPIlignum Collection is fully Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified, meaning our entire supply chain is traced and the wood we use comes from forests managed in a responsible manner.

For 50 years now, the Alpi Group has been directly managing over 300,000 hectares of forest in the Congo Basin, particularly in Cameroon, in accordance with verified environmental, social and economic standards. Sustainability is not an added element, but a condition of our process. Over time, coherency of practices builds design value.