In the final stretch of our Salone del Mobile coverage, More Space takes a look at all the highlights and meets up with Edra's Niccolò Mazzei. Featuring new and re-edited pieces by designers and manufacturers including Edra, Moooi, Lee Broom, Front, India Madhavi and Francesco Binfaré, it's a collection that reveals the ongoing influence of the 1960s and 70s, and the growing number of classics now designed for the outdoors.
Edra x Standalto sofa
The big release for Edra this year was the Standalto by Francesco Binfaré. A designer whose ability to read the nuances and shifts in the way people relax at home is the perfect foil to Edra’s research and development division which is constantly innovating with new materials and technologies that make their sofas so comfortable. ‘Backrests and armrests have lost all stiffness and can be shaped at will with a slight movement of the hand,’ explained Edra. ‘They become low, high, oblique, enveloping and practical.’ Standalto is the latest addition to the range, a mach II version of the popular Standard sofa slightly elevated with soft cushions and an interchangeable configuration that can be adapted to all kinds of environments.
Acerbis x Med chair
The re-edited Med chair embodies Giotto Stoppino and Lodovico Acerbis’s experimental approach to materials with a more streamlined dimension and airier proportions. Designed in 1983 and rediscovered in the furniture house’s historical archives, Med represents a skilled combination of form and material that enhances the characteristics of curved wood through craftsmanship. The distinctive profile of the leg draws on the iconic Flatiron Building on Madison Avenue, New York, and was shown in new versions featuring solid dark-stained walnut and solid black-stained ash, and featuring a seat and back in curved plywood upholstered in fabric or leather.
Moooi x Serpentine Light
The airy suspension lamp, Serpentine, is Moooi’s newest collaboration with Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren of Swedish design collective Front which is well-known for pushing exploration and experiment. What began with a piece of paper and ‘discovering the limits of the different shapes it could adopt,’ their inspiration would draw from the tension of the paper itself and making the surface flow naturally without losing a continuous flow. Realising that twisting was made easier when using an S-shape, the final design is a combination of multiple S-shapes, its twists and turns accentuaed by inky edges and spokes that give the design a riveting effect.
Front's Serpentine light for Moooi. Photo c/o Moooi.
Baxter x Himba Outdoor collection
Colours and materials were the focus at Baxter where rooms were filled with camel-coloured oak, polished nickel silver, baby blue, plum, moss green and Azul quartzite from Brazil. Colours were counterpointed by the nuances of lacquers, ceramics and the fabrics of the outdoor collection, and rugs in shades of sand and glass. It was a palette that reinforced collections where indoor and outdoor directly related. Baxter’s new outdoor range covers the terrace, the garden and ‘all the way to the pool,’ with seats, dormeuses, coffee tables and rugs. The standout Himba collection designed by Roberto Lazzeroni is made of wood, each piece echoing the solid, animated silhouettes of Brazilian design. As Lazzeroni remarked, ‘in spring and summer, they accompany us outdoors, in the cold seasons, they can be admired’.
Foscarini x Tonda light
A magical game of balance ‘that amazes and captures the gaze,’ describes the new suspension lamp created by designer and art director Ferruccio Laviani. A design that uses the force of gravity to create a dynamic equilibrium between the spherical light source and its support, its sinuous geometric lines, metal structure and diffuser in blown glass shifts from opaline white to veiled transparency, Tonda is an elegant interpretation of Italian design of the 1960s and 70s, and a piece Laviani remarked, that ‘comes from the present but reminds us of the past… a product halfway between the Radical Design of the early 1970s and so-called Good Design, which in spite of the references would be timeless, over and above passing fashion’.
Gebrüder Thonet Vienna GmbH x India Madhavi
A new collaboration with Paris-based architect and designer India Mahdavi builds on the iconic steamed timber curves developed by the historic furniture company. Loop is a family of seats consisting of an armchair with armrests and a two-seater sofa, a handmade design that embodies the ancestral know-how. ‘Gebrüder Thonet Vienna is the only manufacturer in the world that allows you to translate a freehand design giving it a wooden materiality of that quality,’ remarked Mahdavi, describing the collection’s sinuous curls that characterise both seats. Playful and versatile, the wooden structure is characterised by its curled armrests that define the profile of the backrest with a fun spiral. While Mahdavi’s palette of upholstery colours are artfully designed to enhance the furnishings with contrasting shades in a range of similar, but not identical, colours.
Loop is a new collaboration between Gebrüder Thonet Vienna GmbH and Paris-based architect and designer India Mahdavi. Photo c/o Gebrüder Thonet Vienna GmbH.
‘Gebrüder Thonet Vienna is the only manufacturer in the world that allows you to translate a freehand design giving it a wooden materiality of that quality.’
India Mahdavi
The Standalto sofa, here and following, by Francesco Binfaré for Edra. Photos c/o Edra.
The Tonda lamp designed by Ferruccio Laviani for Foscarini. Photo c/o Foscarini.
The Himba collection, here and following, designed by Roberto Lazzeron for Baxter. Photos c/o Baxter.
The SoHo modular sofa system, here and following, by Carlo Colombo for Giorgetti. Photos c/o Giorgetti.
Altar, here and following, by Lee Broom. Photos c/o Lee Broom.
The Arflex Marenco Outdoor sofa. Photo c/o Arflex.
The remastered Med chair, here and following, by Giotto Stoppino and Lodovico Acerbis for Acerbis. Photos c/o Acerbis.
Giorgetti x Soho sofa
Artisanal skills passed down at Gerogetti now go hand-in-hand with technological research to create the furniture group's unique mix of craft and innovation. Here, interconnection was key, with wood, leather, natural stone, metal and fabric details combined with new materials and finishes. They expressed the more decorative side of Giorgetti and punctuated the visual rhythm of the collection. A highlight was the new SoHo modular sofa system by Carlo Colombo. A pared-back collection available in two depths and a host of configurations, it can be combined with inlays or a wooden side table, and complements a range of cute novelties, including the Flamingo card table and Borealis screen.
Lee Broom x Altar
Lee Broom launched a series of six new lighting collections during the Salone del Mobile on Via Palermo in the Brera district of Milan. Marking the brand’s 15-year anniversary, Divine Inspiration is the first lighting release for Lee Broom in four years, showcasing a series of new ethereal lighting pieces in a range of materials including a limited-edition collection in white plaster handcrafted by the designer. A standout in the collection is Altar, an ode to Broom’s exploration into the angular forms of mid-century churches which Broom remarked, ‘often looked to warmer natural materials for fonts and pews’. Altar’s elegant, fluted form is almost a metre long, carved from solid oak and completed with an illuminated tube nestled seamlessly within its architectural grooves.
Arflex x Marenco Outdoors sofa
Describing their 2022 show as ‘a refined chromatic harmony where colour, materials and textile details were the protagonists’, Arfex’s collection had compositional rhythm, mixing new collaborations with historical pieces from a design archive that goes back to the heyday of the 1960s. The re-edition of the Marenco sofa first designed at the end of the 60s by Mario Marenco, Arflex celebrated 50 years of love for the collection by extending the iconic sofa with a new version for the outdoors and a re-edition without arms. One of the most enduring designs in form and structure. Its large rounded shape combines strength and comfort that make it a great classic of Italian design.
