Constant research, openness to new ideas, valuation of the historical legacy: The Cassina Perspective is an expression that has become a key of interpretation and a direction for the company founded in Meda in 1927, a game of viewpoints set into relation with each other. A dialogue of ideas that crosses time. The new items presented during Milano Design Week 2022 confirm the approach. The brand’s established names, start with Patricia Urquiola as its art director, have been joined by new entries making their debut with Cassina: Virgil Abloh, Antonio Citterio, the duo Formafantasma, Mikal Harrsen, Linde Freya Tangelder. All enriching Cassina’s approach to thinking about the home.
Esosoft by Antonio Citterio – Cassina, Photo © Valentina Sommariva
Esosoft, the system of sofas created by Antonio Citterio (eight modules, as well as a coffee table in two formats), has been conceived to formulate a domestic landscape – that of the living area – in a fluid, flexible way. A shell with an organic silhouette, suggesting an idea of informal comfort, rests on a metal structure, the exoskeleton that has provided the name. A project with an accent on sustainability: the padding is in bio-polyurethane, containing a percentage of polyols from organic sources; the cushions are padded with recycled PET wadding. The structure is in polished aluminium, a material that can be infinitely recycled.
Mikal Harrsen presents Ghost Wall, a project that reinvents the concept of the storage unit ‘by subtraction.’ A system of decorative panels supported by an electrified rack attached to the wall, enhanced by a wide range of accessories and closed compartments. The innovative aspect of the project is the reduced thickness of the base structure – about 30 mm. The panels, available in many finishes, can also be covered in fabric or wallpaper supplied by the client. For an effect of total camouflage.
Ghost Wall by Mikal Harrsen – Cassina, Photo © Valentina Sommariva
Soft Corners by Linde Freya Tangelder – Cassina, Photo © Valentina Sommariva & Paola Pansini
Linde Freya Tangelder is the protagonist of the first episode of the project Cassina Patronage, which has the aim of cultivating young international talents, supporting culture and developing novel ideas. Thanks to this initiative, the designer had the opportunity to develop a nucleus of works for her first solo exhibition, as well as to design for Cassina Soft Corners, three ottomans and a side table, in a perspective of serial production. The ottomans are padded elements composed of blocks interlocking as in an embrace, while the side table is made with three tubular volumes in stainless steel, welded together.
Post Scriptum by Formafantasma – Cassina with Ginori 1735, Photo © Paola Pansini
The project by Formafantasma, Post Scriptum, joins the Cassina Details collection of accessories, officially presented this year: a series of vases and containers produced together with Ginori 1735, going back to certain forms taken from the archives of Manifattura Ginori, in biscuit porcelain that is then decorated by hand ‘a graffito’ with special ceramic chalk. Each piece is numbered by the master craftsman who decorated it: a detail that makes the items even more unique.
Virgil Abloh was a fashion designer, but above all a visionary of contemporary culture (with a degree in architecture). His collaboration with Cassina, which began in 2020 and reached a conclusion prior to his death in 2021, has led to Modular Imagination, a project rooted in the creative process of play. Two construction elements of different sizes, in matte black, that can be combined to become an ottoman, a bench, a table or more complex compositions.
Modular Imagination by Virgil Abloh – Cassina, Photo © Valentina Sommariva
