A reinterpretation of beauty & simplicity
Simplicity has always been the philosophy of MDF Italia,” says Franco Cassina, head of the contract division of the Milan-based furniture manufacturer MDF Italia.
Cassina was in Manila recently to visit the company’s showroom at Studio Dimensione on Bonifacio High Street and to talk about the contemporary classic collections and this year’s Salone del Mobile Milano starting on April 4.
Simplicity and innovation are the two elements that have catapulted MDF Italia’s designs into homes and corporate headquarters of some of the world’s biggest companies, such as the Google offices in Milan, Unicredit Bank in Sofia; and KPMG headquarters and Leo Burnett offices in London.
Its most recognizable design is the Flow chair, designed by Jean Marie Massaud in 2009. From the simple and beautiful shape of the polycarbonate seat, this chair has taken on several more looks, thanks to variations in its legs, height and cushioning.
In fact, as Cassina was showing me pictures of several vignettes, ranging from home to hotel, restaurant and office, it occurred to me that you can actually furnish every room in your house with Flow chairs, whether it’s your study or dining room or kitchen, and the rooms would not look alike. That’s how diverse the Flow collection is.
It can be a sleek minimalist or padded or with the shell bare, with or without arms, with a fixed central leg, or four legs in oak or steel, with wheels or without, or a five-point star leg. It also comes as a stool.
A third-generation Cassina from the Italian family of furniture makers (they fully acquired MDF Italia in 2014), Franco says the company is a pioneer in using aluminum for its Minima and Random bookcases — gorgeous systems with such thin shelving that you wonder how they can take the weight of heavy books and files.
And that’s where innovation in material and manufacturing comes in, overcoming what used to be structural limitations — and making the simplicity of design possible.
Its La Grande Table is a 4.40-meter-long, one-piece table made of folded aluminum sheets; the Lim04 table goes on and on and has just four legs at both ends for support; and the STable has a leg in the center shaped like an S, which is better appreciated with a glass top; the Rock table looks like it is floating on air, propped up by a slim support on a solid base.
New shapes, lightness, emotion and meaning are in the DNA of every piece of design.
Next month at Salone del Mobile, the biggest furniture fair in the world, the company is exhibiting new iterations of their collections. Franco says that they will also be available in their Manila showroom in the future.
The award-giving bodies have always taken notice of MDF Italia’s designs. In 2015, Jean Marie Massaud’s Rock table, and the Flow stool and pouf were given the Interior Innovation Awards in Cologne. Fattorini+Rizzini’s Minima 3.0 bookcase and Neuland Industriedesign’s Inmotion modular system won the Best of Best for Interior Innovation in 2014 and 2013, respectively.
“Research never stops at MDF Italia,” he says. “Design solutions can be very technical and that’s what we’re good at. Look at our bookcases, our chairs and tables. All of them are very simple — but strong and they elicit a powerful emotion from the users themselves or even if you are just looking at them.”
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MDF Italia’s showroom is located at Studio Dimensione, One Parkade, Bonifacio Global City.
