Published on : Thursday, April 13, 2017
In its 90-year history, Cassina has affirmed the instinct of its founders to join the recent past with the future through furniture that responds to the present, while at the same time fuelling the collective imagination.
The 2017 Collection, exhibited at the renewed Milan showroom with a project by Patricia Urquiola, also ties in with this aspect of Cassina’s DNA. The new products are also connected to the important projects launched for the brand’s anniversary: the monograph This Will Be the Place edited by Felix Burrichter and published by Rizzoli, and the Cassina 9.0 installation by Patricia Urquiola at the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli.
Concepts from the book This Will Be The Place meet the new products
The concepts of fluidity of space, hybridization of types, and circularity of time and forms analysed in the book’s critical readings all emerge in the collection’s new products and influence the evolution of the existing ‘mutating’ designs, offering new horizons.
The showroom houses the Floe Insel sofa by Patricia Urquiola, completely in tune with the principle of flexible interiors. This visually dynamic piece has large asymmetrical volumes that give a strong sense of comfort.
A clear interaction with the user and another expression of a need for versatility of spaces and furniture is Konstantin Grcic’s Soft Props. A setting for public or private conversations defined by a graphic line that almost abstractly designs a space, tracing the edge of the sofa and creating a more intimate boundary made comfortable by soft seats and varying cushions.
Also suitable for a flexible domestic setting are the Baleno shelves, designed by the Bouroullec brothers in a first collaboration with Cassina. Like the vertebrae of a whale, these shelves flex under the weight of books and become a wall decoration when combined together in repeated elements, for a constantly transforming space.
The second piece by the two French designers is born from the Cassina catalogue drawing on family memories to create a new product. Chair or small armchair? Cotone is the union of a very soft, cosy down seat with a minimal, rigid supporting structure that brings to life a model that conveys all the comfort of a padded chair for the dining table.
Constantly evolving designs
Some products in the catalogue broaden the collection’s range with new solutions. Generous dimensions and greater comfort for the Beam Sofa System by Patricia Urquiola is introduced with the new Super Beam sofa system. New proportions and details for the 8 sofa by Piero Lissoni is added with 8 Cube, which offers padded elements without side and back panels, in addition to a new swivel armchair. And an extension to the Caprice and Passion line of chairs by Philippe Starck with high stools with a stem base.
Some designs are enriched with new finishes and colours, like for example the Flat cabinets by Piero Lissoni and the collection of Réaction Poétique objects by Jaime Hayon. Not just within the Contemporanei Collection, but also in the Maestri Collection: the Accordo table by Charlotte Perriand is proposed in new bright lacquers, while the LC4 chaise-longue by Le Corbusier, Jeanneret, and Perriand sports a removable fabric mattress.
Other upgrades considerably change the original design, like the Lebeau table designed by Patrick Jouin for Cassina in 2003. Now revisited in wood with a light base made of alternating full and hollow spaces with curved solid wood slats, the table is the perfect expression of the company’s high level production skills.
Tags: Baleno shelves, Cassina, Floe Insel sofa, Konstantin Grcic, patricia urquiola, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, salone del mobile 2017, Soft Props
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