HAVE A SEAT
Luxury furniture maker B&B Italia’s elegant seating arrangements
Upending notions about form versus function on its head, B&B Italia’s latest designs out of Milan Design Week last April was a veritable feast of gorgeous furniture. The brand presented its pieces with Walks of Design, which put the new products in two distinct contexts, describing the complex and compelling creative journey of a furniture piece from an idea to a designer product.
The new B&B Italia and Maxalto Designs focus on interior home furnishings with new pieces and collections designed by Antonio Citterio, Naoto Fukasawa, Piero Lissoni and making his debut, Michael Anastassiades. Meanwhile the new Outdoor Collection from designers Nipa Doshi, Jonathan Lieven and Fukasawa were showcased at the Chiostri dell’Umanitaria, a former religious complex, whose ancient architecture evoked peace and tranquility that translated to the pieces.
B&B Atoll
We were particularly taken by Citterio’s modular seating system. Called B&B Atoll after the coral formation, the system is both contemporary and timelessly elegant.
The system is built on three basic platforms – 190 cm and 240 cm, both with 90 cm depth, and 130 cm with 140 cm deep – that are complemented by armrest and backrest elements to form various types of seats: sofas, dormeuses, corner-end modules, single or modular elements with chaise longue and pouf. The frames have light, slender lines and are applied on high die-cast supports with metal profile emphasising the line between the structure and upholstery. Two finishes are available, pewter and black chrome. The pieces are given even more character by a supporting element to be placed wherever desired, a bolster in two sizes – 65 and 90 cm – attached by leather straps to a die-cast structure. This accessory can be inserted between the seat cushion and the base structure to provide an additional support or become an armrest or backrest at will.
Says the designer, “B&B Atoll is a versatile collection that reinterprets traditional elements, like the bolster, associating them with a sleek, refined structure that fits smoothly into the contemporary language. It is versatile because it can be used in a wide range of settings, from the most formal, when partnered with the armchairs, to informal situations, thanks to the possibility of creating an L-shaped configuration with the daybed as end element.” Eda-Mame Fluid, sculptural and beautiful, Piero Lissoni’s Eda-Mame references the soybean, of course. Creating maximum impact with its organic form, it becomes the focal point in any room, whether as a conversation piece, a seating system or an art piece.
Says Lissoni, “It’s as if it were a surface, a Möbius strip. Eda-Mame is strangely full of curves, it welcomes you and, if you want, it lets you drink an aperitif, almost as if it were an upholstered table.”
The Eda-Mame is a fusion of three types of seating – high-back chair, easy chair and pouf. Its threefold nature lends Eda-Mame extreme versatility in both residential and public settings, and can also highlight areas for co-working, passage and short stays, like hotel lobbies. Made of moulded foam, Eda-Mame is upholstered in a stretch fabric with a light stitching. The support base is made of crosspieces with rounded steel feet connected to each other by a bar, all in pewter painted finish. Colosseo An example of a product whose function depends on the need and occasion, the Colosseo can be used as a coffee table or a pouf. When designing this new product, Fukasawa arrived at the shape he was searching for by considering a solid in the form of an upside-down truncated cone, lightened by arch-shaped grooves that define the surface, creating an assonance with the structure of the famous Roman arena it is named after. Made of hard polyurethane painted in sixteen glossy colours, Colosseo is available in two sizes: 40 cm diameter x 45 cm height and 50 cm diameter x 55 cm height.
Says the designer, “Like the Harbor armchairs that are carved out from an upside down conical mass, these small tables were originally made by the same process. However, they looked rather too solid and heavy so I shaved off some of the mass, then its arches resembled the Roman arches of Colosseum.”