Wanders, who is Basta's creative director, designed the sofa so that it would be easy to assemble and disassemble, making it appropriate for modern homes and lifestyles.
The Ponte sofa is built on a foldable metal frame
"We have a new audience today: it's the generation that is always on the move," explained the designer.
"Some of the problems that we are trying to solve is how do you navigate the narrow layouts of European houses? How do you make sure that your furniture travels with you when your job brings you to another city?"
The sofa is available in grey and blue
The sofa is built on a metal frame that can be folded and disassembled for easy transportation and then assembled without tools. Cushions and legs are then added to the frame meaning that multiple reinterpretations are possible using the same frame.
About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen’s huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Dezeen Showroom: furniture brand Lemon has created a marble table with a circular top that sits on a central faceted base.
Designed by Lemon co-founder Kevin Frankental, the Ashby table was originally designed to be an entrance hall table for the furniture brand's head office.
Made from Bianco Carrara marble, the table has a simple form with a geometric base and round top that makes it appropriate for use throughout an office or home.
Top and above: the Ashby table by Lemon
"The further we go into our design journey the more we learn and the more we try to strip designs down," said Frankental.
"We have come to the realization that a great piece doesn’t always need to make the biggest noise in the room."
The versatile table can be used in many settings
Like many of Lemon's furniture pieces, the table's form was derived directly from the material it was made from.
"The inspiration came from the surface," explained Frankental. "We use natural textures as much as possible, but it can be difficult working with materials like marble and travertine, and it's come with a few learning curves," he continued.
"There are limitations to the thicknesses of marble that are available in South Africa too, so we're always forced to think of creative ways to use it."
About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen's huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Italian architect Piero Lissoni has been named as the new artistic director of B&B Italia, as the furniture brand looks to overhaul its global image.
Having created several designs for B&B Italia over the past four years, Lissoni will now be responsible for developing the visual identity and "stylistic code" of the 54-year-old Italian company.
Lissoni joins at a pivotal moment, as B&B Italia looks to start a new phase in its history.
"We are delighted and proud to welcome Piero Lissoni in the B&B Italia family and we are eager to start a new and important evolutionary chapter for B&B Italia with him," said CEO Gilberto Negrini.
"We are confident that Piero will embody the values that since 1966 represent the brand: design, culture, innovation technology and research, contemporary lifestyle."
Collaboration began in 2017
Lissoni runs an architecture and design practice with offices in Milan and New York. With a specialism in high-end hotel and residential projects, his portfolio includes the Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam and the Grand Park Hotel in Croatia.
The architect has worked with many prestigious furniture brands in his career, including Cappellini, Alessi, Flos, De Padova and Kartell, and he is already creative director for Alpi, Boffi, Living Divani, Lema, Lualdi, Porro and Sanlorenzo.
His collaboration with B&B Italia began in 2017 and has continued ever since. His designs for the brand include his modular Dock sofa, the Liagò storage system and the new Borea outdoor furniture.
Lissoni has designed several B&B Italia products, including the modular Dock sofa
Lissoni described his new position as "a beautiful adventure". He plans to work on a strategy that both respects the brand's heritage and allows it stay relevant in the future.
"I'm happy to start this new journey with a company that has written the history of Italian and international design, always remaining contemporary," he said.
New chapter for B&B Italia
"B&B Italia is an integral part and one of the pillars of the model that the world longs for," Lissoni continued. "A unique system made up of entrepreneurs with a vision capable of bringing together craftsmanship and industry, tradition and innovation, connections and collaborations."
"Well, I hope that this path we have taken together will lead us on one hand to affirm this heritage and on the other way open up new opportunities for the future."
B&B Italia is part of the Design Holding group, along with lighting brands Flos and Louis Poulson. The group formed in 2018, backed by private equity firms Investindustrial and The Carlyle Group, and exhibited for the first time at the Salone del Mobile in 2019.
As with B&B Italia, a management shakeup has also taken place at Flos since the launch of Design Holding. Piero Gandini, son of founder Sergio Gandini, stepped down as CEO after 22 years with the company.
Since then, Flos has also brought in new creative support. Architects Fabio Calvi and Paolo Brambilla, who run the studio Calvi Brambilla, were appointed "design curators".
Designed by Impact Acoustic's co-founder Jeffrey Ibañez, the Chatpod booths were created to be a room-in-room solution that allows for private meetings or calls to take place within an office.
Top: Chatpod has five models that cater to different work modes. Above: the smallest booths accommodate one person standing
Each Chatpod has a soundproof interior with an integrated power, lighting and ventilation system, while its exterior is designed to absorb the noise created in busy offices and can be finished in a choice of 25 colours.
The booths are designed for a variety of uses and come in five different sizes – the smallest accommodates a single person standing while the largest can seat six people.
Chatpods are available in a variety of colours
The booths are all made in Impact Acoustic's factory in the Swiss Alps from upcycled materials and are designed so that all the elements can be recycled at the end of the pod's life.
About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen’s huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Dezeen speaks to Italian design studio Formafantasma about its new collaboration with Swiss watch brand Rado in a live panel discussion as part of Rado Design Week. Tune in from 4:00pm London time.
Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs will be joined by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, the design duo behind Formafantasma, to talk about their special edition of Rado's True Square watch, which was exclusively revealed earlier today in a video filmed by Dezeen at their studio in Amsterdam.
For their design, Trimarchi and Farresin looked to the tradition of closed pocket watches in order to create a contemporary take on a historic watch design.
The True Square Formafantasma by Italian design studio Formafantasma
Called True Square Formafantasma, the watch has a minimal face with a small round window in its middle where the dials sit, harkening back to pocket watch lids, which would often feature a small window for the user to see the time.
Using injection moulding technology, Formafantasma worked with Rado to develop their watch design using the brand's signature high-tech ceramic.
"Working with Rado was engaging because the level of expertise in watchmaking is obviously excellent," Farresin said in the video that we published earlier today.
"For a designer, it is always exciting to work with a partner that can accomplish your ideas and be open to your perspective," he added.
Trimarchi and Farresin founded Formafantasma in 2009 after graduating from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2009.
Their work often investigates materials through their historical context and attempts to act as a bridge between their research-based practice and the wider design industry.
Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, founders of Formafantasma
Fairs, Trimarchi and Farresin will also be joined by Rado's CEO Adrian Bosshard and vice president of product development Hakim El Kadiri, who will give an insight into the Rado brand and why it chose to work with the Italian design duo.
Adrian Bosshard, CEO of Rado
Joining Rado as CEO in June 2020, Bosshard has previously been CEO to Rado's sister brand Certina for the past 17 years.
Rado Design Week is a week-long collaboration between the Swiss watch brand and Dezeen, which sees the reveal of four unique versions of its True Square timepiece created by a roster of international designers including Formafantasma, YOY, Tej Chauhan and Thukral&Tagra.
Every day throughout the week Dezeen will also broadcast a live conversation between Fairs, Bosshard, El Kadiri and one of the designers. The week concludes with a competition that gives Dezeen readers the chance to win one of the watches from the collection.
The event marks a pivotal moment for Rado, which started out in a workshop in Switzerland's Lengnau district back in 1917. Although the brand often hosts events to launch its new watches, this is its first virtual design week.
