An important new feature of this year’s launch is the new Lighting collection that broadens the vision of the Cassina house with lighting elements designed to create welcoming atmospheres capable of satisfying a broad spectrum of styles. This first catalogue brings together designs by Tobia Scarpa, Philippe Starck, Linde Freya Tangelder, the protagonist of the Patronage project presented last year, and a new collaboration with Italian designer Paolo Ulian. The genesis of the collection arises from the discovery of the lighting designs by Charles and Ray Eames, among the most influential American designers of the 20th Century. Cassina’s interest in the Modern Movement and expertise in authentically researching and editing heritage pieces has led the company to explore these lighting designs in close collaboration with the Eames Office and Form Portfolios, resulting in extraordinary philological research that will bring these pieces to light with the launch of the first Eames Lighting Collection in 2024.
Moncloud, design by Patricia Urquiola
A versatile upholstered system designed by Patricia Urquiola, Moncloud is distinguished by its strong lines and generous, welcoming volumes. The wooden structure lifts the upholstered seats off the ground with a consequent effect of lightness and a marked sense of softness, just like a cloud. At the production level, the sofa’s structure, instead of being made using polyurethane moulds, is sculpted from recycled PET wadding, a decisive design advance for the furniture industry.
EITIE, design Tobia Scarpa
Originally designed by Tobia Scarpa for a wall installation for the former Church of Santa Maria Nova, this versatile lighting system appears as a simple light line that can be declined in various configurations through characteristic circular connections. Each element consists of two or three light lines that can be connected in various compositions thanks to the circular black metal connections, enriched with silver details, which conceal innovative technology inside. The series consists of a pendant lamp, a table lamp and a floor lamp.
Wax, Stone, Light, design Linde Freya Tangelder
After the success of the Soft Corners coffee table collection, the collaboration between the Dutch designer Linde Freya Tangelder and Cassina continues with the Wax, Stone, Light lamp collection. The collection is based on the idea of sculptural blocks placed precariously on top of each other in an apparently unstable architectural column. Experimenting with glass, the designer created five totemic columns of different sizes made of Murano glass cubes blown by artisans inside cast iron moulds. Defined by irregular shapes, the surface of each block is then hand-worked with wax to obtain its unique shape.
Fluxus-E, design Paolo Ulian
This lighting system by Paolo Ulian was created for an exhibition on the inventions of Baron Bic curated by Ugo La Pietra, a reference immediately visible in the articulated arms of the lamp, which at the time were made from the transparent plastic tubes of the pen par excellence. Cassina has now taken up the original design by developing the Fluxus-E lamp with a single LED module that illuminates both the central body of the lamp and the peripheral area, while small LED spotlights positioned under each individual tube project light through the glass to diffuse a warm glow.
Risacca screen, design Gaetano Pesce
Cassina’s research on the screen typology continues with the collaboration with Gaetano Pesce who has proposed a handmade and hand-decorated partition element, a unique piece, numbered from 1 to 9 that more than a furnishing element is a true work of art. The subject reproduced is strongly evocative and recalls the scent of the sea, the warmth of the beach and the alternation of the waves. Consisting of three independent panels in polyurethane resin, the Tamburound screen is created through a series of elaborate handcrafted processes that make each detail unique, remaining true to the artist’s distinctive philosophy.
Tamburound, design Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby
The Tamburound armchair offers a new vision of the dining chair and challenges the traditional formality of this type of furniture. The backrest and seat rotate independently of each other, thanks to an ingenious swivel system developed by Cassina, encouraging more dynamic interaction between diners. The mechanism, hidden under the seat, is connected to a sinuous bracket that in turn supports the backrest.
No Vanitas, design Patricia Urquiola
Revolutionising the traditional concept of the mirror, Urquiola gives shape to a reflective object in which the viewer is no longer the focal point and the act of admiration becomes peripheral. Each murrina, made unique by the hammering of the surface, is handmade by glass craftsmen through a complex and elaborate process in which the glass is cast inside a circular mould. The ‘morisa’, the glass cord typical of the Murano tradition, is engraved with a striped pattern, known locally as a ‘rigadin’, and applied by hand to the circumference of the murrina.
50 years of the Cassina iMaestri Collection
The Cassina iMaestri Collection evolves, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, to welcome new authors who have written the history of design and, as a result, have fully earned their place in this universe: Vico Magistretti, Gio Ponti and Carlo Scarpa and, in anticipation of the lighting launch in 2024, Charles and Ray Eames. A celebration that will be staged from 17 to 21 April 2023 at Palazzo Broggi with ‘Echoes, 50 years of iMaestri‘, an exhibition curated by Patricia Urquiola with Federica Sala.
Photo © Andrea Bartolucci, Francesco Dolfo, Agostino Osio, Paola Pansini
