Starfinancer

In a community as small as that of design, new collaborations always have a background and precedents. Like that of Antonio Citterio with Cassina. «I’m from Meda, where Cassina is based», he says, «I knew Cesare Cassina, and even better Franco Cassina. I had the opportunity to collaborate with C&B, Cassina & Busnelli, but when the two partners took different paths, I stayed in the B&B. At the time, as with certain football teams, if you played for one you would not have been able to go and play for the other ».
Then time passed, situations changed, the most managerial funds and management arrived in design.
«Today some fences are gone. So I started with Cassina, where I found people I knew, from Luca Fuso (the managing director) to certain people in the style office I had met in other companies ».

The prize

Cassina enters the register of historical brands by focusing on the future

by Francesca Alliata Bronner

02 February 2022

Personal relationships are important …

“In this case even more so. Because when you work with these companies you do not come up with a drawing, a finished project, but with an idea, of the things that you describe with words, and that perhaps immediately begin to become real, or they are there to mature for months, years”.
Different companies, different styles.

“Architect and company are the father and mother of the product, so working with different brands I design different things: because changing partners mix different genes, and the result also changes”.
Why Esosoft, this new sofa family?

«The idea comes from my work as an architect. Designing residential skyscrapers in big cities, from Hong Kong to Miami, I have one point very clear: space is precious. In these buildings, a 100 square meter apartment is considered large. The decor follows consistently. I wanted to think of a series of sofas of small dimensions, not very deep, we could say metropolitan sofas, practical in their configurations, easy to take with you if you move house, but at the same time visually comfortable “.

And, I would say, of character, with the strong sign of the armrests, wings that lighten the volume. Eight “compatible” modules, as you defined them, which can function individually or in various combinations. But what is the guideline of the project?

“From a formal point of view, the coupling between the shell, an aluminum exoskeleton, and the structure of the sofa that finds support, and then the use of cushions, which is typical of my style, overall there is a reference to the informal comfort of the Sixties .. But Esosoft has a vision regarding ecological problems. It was my starting goal, and Cassina is already working with the Politecnico di Milano for a growing eco-sustainability. So we used bio polyurethane for the foam, blown fiber and recycled pet wadding for foams, padding and coatings. The aluminum of the structure can be recycled indefinitely ».