When it comes to a well-appointed living room, nothing makes heads turn quite like a stunning sofa and these conversation starters are sure to steal the show.
From soft profiles and sinuous curves, to pastel hues and utmost personalisation, the sofas taking center-stage circa 2020 are worlds away from their stiff lipped counterparts.
Major Tom by Maisondada
Chinese furniture makers MaisonDada have revealed their first sofa, inspired by fashion and pop culture. Designed by the MaisonDada co-founder Thomas Dariel, the collection offers a retro vibe with its curved corners and softened profile. With contrasting inner and outer upholstery, the fashion influence comes through without being a cliché — the sofa appears to be wearing layers of colour and texture — all in masterfully produced Kvadrat fabrics. According to the designer, the sofa wears a ‘jacket’, and hence the name, Major Tom. Dariel has a very specific one in mind: David Bowie’s Pierre Cardin jacket for the video for Space Oddity.
Voxel by BIG
Like their LEGO House and the Serpentine Pavilion 2016, Bjarke Ingels Group love to explore the ideal of modularity in design, often looking to create highly refined blocks that can offer a gamut of permutations and assemblage. Their debut proposal for a sofa, developed for the Danish company Common Seating, takes the same approach to deliver the ultimate in flexibility. From a single seater to much larger configurations — which would be ideal for the Middle Eastern lifestyle — Voxel can be easily adapted, thanks its grid-like system. Taking the concept of the singular element further, Voxel comes upholstered in pixelated, lattice-style patterns. From a footstool to majlis settings, users can assemble what they want from this collection.
Roadie by Massproductions
Swedish furniture brand Massproductions presented their latest outdoor sofa at the Stockholm Design Week in February. Marked by a curved, metal body, the design is inspired by the welded steel barriers that are often erected at concerts and public events to manage crowds. The name comes for the term used for the workers who assemble these barricades. Made almost entirely of metal, each seat is built from a series of rods: two horizontal ones that define the frame, and numerous vertical ones, bent to form the back and seat. Recycled aluminium from discarded drinks cans was heat-treated for strength and renders each piece unparalleled lightness. The two meter long, three-seater sofa weighs only 16 kilograms and can easily reconfigured by a single person. The collection is available in metallic silver, petrol blue or butter yellow — ideal for the outdoors.
Proto by Nick Ross
When Danish brand +Halle invited Nick Ross to collaborate on a new seating collection, they gave him a starting point by way of a single word ‘dwelling’. This prompted the Scottish designer to explore what the concept means to him. Eventually he centred on creating a feeling of a primal place: “For instance, tucking yourself into a corner.” Eschewing the typical modular formats in favour of curvaceous lines and, Ross developed a collection of chairs, sofas, benches and stools that play with concepts of intimacy and security. When arranged arm to arm, the Proto chairs seem to be coming together in warm embrace. The closed in side of the sofa offer users a place to snuggle.
Stack by Nendo
It takes a lot of effort to look so casually chic, and that is true for this latest sofa collection designed by the Japanese studio. Created for Parisian brand La Manufacture, the product required numerous tests and intensive prototyping, for what looks like a few cushions strewn around actually hides an inner structure that holds the large padded elements together.
