The Swiss studio of architecture and design atelier oï – Aurel Abi, Armand Louis and Patrick Reymond – was founded in 1991. During their career they have worked with many prestigious companies, including many based in Italy, from B&B Italia to Fendi Casa. The collaboration with Passoni Design, a brand from Friuli specialized in premium wooden furniture (art director Luca Botto), began ten years ago. This anniversary is being celebrated with a new chair, Radice, in two versions (with and without armrests) and a linear image free of any superfluous touches.
The design method of atelier oï has always been driven by a desire for harmony, for natural unity. A “poetic-ethical” attitude of creativity, as they put it, always with a sense of lightness: a “levitas” (another central term in their output) that is in any case able to respond to needs, to perform functions.
In their projects the starting point is often the material: its nature, its potential affinities, its interactions with other materials. Radice is the result of thinking about wood, the material of its structure, and about trees, the living image of wood. The seat has been conceived for different settings, from restaurants to conference rooms, combining comfort and elegance, aesthetics and functional quality. All connected on a single poetic pathway.
“In this new collaboration with Passoni our aim was to create a chair that would represent a balance between the practicality of a standard chair and the comfort of an armchair,” the architects explain. “The wooden structure of Radice, with soft lines combined with padded parts, offers a welcoming, engaging experience. The three legs are rooted to ensure stability, while the main axis seems to emerge from the ground and spread like branches to form the seat and armrests, suggesting the structure of a tree.”
“In ten years of interaction with atelier oï – says Tommaso Passoni, CEO of the brand – we have developed six different collections, which share the same spirit but also individually express completely different characteristics. An ongoing dialogue and a shared passion for wood and natural materials that have permitted us to narrate new stories through design, which over the years have helped us to grow and to gain a strong reputation around the world. The Radice collection is a new story, another vivid emotional experience.”
