More Space explores the iconic furniture of visionary women whose big thinking, diverse and award-winning furniture, has shaped some of the world's most loved design pieces. Here, we meet Front’s Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren, Paola Navone and Monica Armani, who have established leading design practices in Stockholm, Milan and Trento that continue to shake up furniture design.
The work of Monica Armani is synonymous with the innovation that comes out of Italy, where the most famous cities and the smallest villages are brimming with centuries of design. Living and working in Trento at the foothills of the beautiful Dolomite Mountains, the architect and designer is inspired by nature describing it as ‘the engine of everything’ and the foundation for objects and spaces that refresh the soul. Her father, modernist architect Marcello Armani, has had a lasting impact, embedding the principles of the Bauhaus school in Armani's refined and rational work. While growing up in a house designed by her father and furnished with pieces that define the history of industrial design from Mies van der Rohe to Eero Saarinen, influenced the overlay of seductive curves and playful moments that define the designer’s collections for B&B Italia.
'I firmly believe that all this heritage is expressed in my every creative process,’ Armani remarks. 'The strength of form and balance of a simple stone step or a church rose window, Palladian perspectives have inspired and generated the values for authentic design for 800 years.’ That creative process also embraces the characteristic shapes of what the designer describes as 'the magical period of the 1960s’ adding another layer.
The alluring Allure O' and Flair O’ collections for B&B Italia by Monica Armani, here and following. Photo © Tommaso Sartori c/o B&B Italia.
The Allure O' and Flair O’ collections for B&B Italia started with the idea of designing a table and chair that were sculptural and whose presence would not go unnoticed. 'The table is one of the main elements of any interior space, and I think that this fundamental piece of furniture should play a leading role and invite conviviality,’ Armani explains. 'With Allure O', I designed an object with a gentle strength, where the contrast between the massive base and the delicate top creates a luxurious and timeless table that is at the same time suitable for any place, also thanks to the colour'. As a complement, the Flair O’ seat is characterised by a monolithic base, precise volume and swivel base that has all the glamour and eye-popping detail of a 1960s gown. Both produced by Italy’s leading innovator in furniture manufacture, it is the depth of collaboration that also says everything about the rigour in Armani’s work.
'Working with B&B is always a unique experience for a designer, they have one of the best research centres in the world,’ says Armani. ‘It is a place where so much is possible, where craftsmanship, history and research come together... Today, as never before, the crossover between art and method, thanks to the development of technologies, appears as the engine for the sustainable development of our hemisphere’
The Nepal Mama chair by Paola Navone for Baxter. Photo c/o Baxter.
'Working with B&B is always a unique experience for a designer, they have one of the best research centres in the world. It is a place where so much is possible, where craftsmanship, history and research come together.’
Monica Armani
Central to Paola Navone’s work is the craft, beauty and richness found in traditional making processes, and the avant-garde roots of Italian design. An established career that began in the 1960s in the studios of Ettorre Sottsass, Andrea Branzi and Alessandro Mendini, Navone describes herself as both straightforward and an eclectic dreamer, with a curiosity and interest in research, materials, form and structure that takes shape in furniture, ceramics and interiors.
Opening her multidisciplinary design studio 'Otto' in Milan in 2000, the designer’s award-winning work as an architect, designer, interior decorator and art director produces what Navone describes as a ‘continuous creative contamination from the micro to the macro’ where simple, everyday things are elevated into something extraordinary. It is an approach that defines her collaborations with brands including Italian furniture manufacturer Baxter, where Navone’s design know-how and ability to open up new paths with leather, and 'to make it come alive’ has shaped a collaboration that began more than 10 years ago.
Baxter and the talents of tanners, designers and makers, what the brand describes as a ‘large and not so ordinary family,’ includes the celebrated Navone whose intuitive and unconventional working method is perfectly matched with the approach of the Baxter brand. 'When I met Baxter many years ago, I didn’t like the items they carried out, but I immediately fell in love with that energy inside the company and reflected in the manufacture of leather,’ remarks Navone who has now designed more than 30 pieces including the über furry Nepal Mama armchairs and the Chester Moon sofa with its twist on traditional deep button tufting. 'Leather with natural dyes and therefore leather in all its imperfections. It was really an extraordinary savour faire.’
With a team of 20 designers who work between products and interiors, Navone produces products, exhibitions and installations all over the world that have won the designer the Osaka International Design Award and a prestigious appointment into the US Interior Design Magazine’s Design Hall of Fame.
Designer Paola Navone whose inquisitive mind shapes craft and detail focused collections for brands including Baxter. Photo c/o Baxter.
The Budapest Soft sofa by Paola Navone for Baxter. Photo c/o Baxter.
The alluring Allure O' and Flair O’ collections for B&B Italia by Monica Armani. Photo c/o B&B Italia.
Monica Armani and Luca Dallabetta at their studio in Trento. Photo c/o Monica Armani Studio.
The Starfall light designed by Front for Moooi. Photo c/o Moooi.
The Starfall light at night inspired by the stars in the Swedish forest. Photo c/o Moooi.
The iconic Horse lamp designed by Front for Moooi. Photo c/o Moooi.
The iconic Pig table designed by Front for Moooi. Photo c/o Moooi.
The Chess table designed by Front for Moooi. Photo c/o Moooi.
'As a Swede, nature is a big part of my life. It was kind of an extension of our living room to go out and play. It’s a very inspiring place. We wanted to go back there as designers.’
Anna Lindgren, cofounder, Front
The iconic Rabbit lamp designed by Front for Moooi. Photo c/o Moooi.
Front's Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren. Photo © Lena Modigh c/o Front.
From the MoMA collection in New York, to the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the M+ collection in Hong Kong, to the Vitra Design Museum in Switzerland and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Anna Lindgren and Sofia Lagerkvist founders of Swedish design studio Front are two of the most celebrated designers in Sweden who like nothing more than rocking the status quo. From their first and very outré project ‘Design by Animals’ (yes, rats, snakes and rabbits took the reigns), to the cute and fluffy cloud-shaped ice cream designed for dessert group Häagen-Daz, and the more recent Starfall Light for Moooi inspired by the twinkly stars above the Scandinavian forest, Front embeds both nature and humour into their work.
'When we started Front, Scandinavian design was much more conservative or traditional in the minimal sense,’ explains Lagerkvist who met Lindgren at design school and worked in stage design before Front. 'I think very few people would call us ‘minimal’ but there are lots of things that we also intuitively have as part of our culture.'
Opening their design studio Front in Stockholm in 2003, the work is based on what the duo describe as 'common discussions, explorations and experiments’ from first idea to final design. Drawn to art, fashion and film, Front’s design objects often communicate a story about the process of designing, building on each other’s ideas as they develop a language for each project. The aim remarks Lindgren, to question things and push themselves 'to do something we haven’t done before’.
Working for international furniture manufacturers, like the heritage-rich Austrian brand Gebrüder Thonet Vienna GmbH, producing contemporary twists on traditional steam-bent wood and woven cane, and the Italian powerhouse Kartell, it was the Dutch group Moooi and its provocative collection of furniture, lighting, carpets and accessories that ask us to ‘Experience A Life Extraordinary,' who first spotted the spark in Front. They have since collaborated with the duo on more than 10 designs including the ‘Blow Away Vase' and the iconic and collectible animal lamps in the series that includes a horse, pig and rabbit. 'Moooi is a brand that wants to push the boundaries, something that you haven’t seen before, something to touch you,’ explains Lindgren. 'We are fascinated with the magic that objects can bring you,’ continues Lagerkvist. 'For us, collaboration is the main focus of our studio. Together we trigger each other to try even more to develop things in an unexpected way.'
B&B Italia, Kartell, Moooi and Gebrüder Thonet Vienna GmbH are available exclusively in South East Asia from Space – Singapore and Malaysia, and Space – Australia.
