Living Divani New products in 2015

Essential silhouettes and tailoring codes are the essence of Living Divani's new collection.
This bright, dynamic, family-run company, which has made of upholstery its trademark, is taking part to the Salone del Mobile 2015 with objects made to be experienced in your everyday life, objects which exude relaxation, repossessing your time and passion for old-fashioned ways when it comes to production traditions. Natural materials such as hide, leather, rope and wicker, whether woven or quilted with artisan skills, rediscovering precious traditions of the past, are combined with closed weave textiles, from which amazing optical-effect embossed micro-needlework become apparent.

Sophisticated finishes such as Stone Oak®, essence of natural origin from the unique surface similar in appearance to a stone, is derived from trunks slipped under the ground between several layers of clay which, once brought back to light, carry a new unique beauty; and the new leather Zero Impact, which enhance the ecological sustainability thanks to a production process that reaches the total compensation of greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2015, Living Divani plunges into material experiments transforming upholstery into an emotion tailoring new contemporary classics and simultaneously implementing its own, because a good design is constantly renewed, continuing to emit creative inspiration, elegance and modernity respecting the environment.

Setting the style of the living area, with its clean lines freely inspired by the Fifties, is the new Easy Lipp designed by Piero Lissoni. As its name suggests, it evokes the model Lipp launched in 2014, recouping its characteristic features while attenuating and simplifying them. This sofa for everyday use is the perfect setting for playing with children and chatting with friends. Neat, silent, and, at the same time, unexpected in its details, such as the details with sewn stitching on seat cushions, or its slender metallic legs, Easy Lipp moulds environments with character and lightness, hosting daily moments of relax.

The Lipp family by Piero Lissoni, who reinterprets the distinguished capitonné work with the brand's typical contemporary geometrical spirit, has grown even more with the new Lipp armchair, where the stitching is found on the three internal sides to create an extended decoration, a precious cocooning which envelops you in a refined covering with diamond-shaped quilting. In the bedroom, the new Lipp Bed displays characteristic and elegant tailoring details on the headboard, a stylistic code but also a soft element to lean against. This classic and purified image is made extremely modern by the sharp cut of the shapes, for a couture furnishing style, which expresses the Living Divani character, slotting perfectly into the most sophisticated bedrooms and hotel rooms.

Updating a classic: to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Frog armchair, Living Divani has edited new versions of this iconic product designed in 1995 by Piero Lissoni and considered the pioneer of low, wide proportions as a new way to live in a more relaxed manner.

Without changing the unique design and characteristics of lightness, essentiality, multi-use possibilities, the renewal work focuses on the choice of materials and new ways of proposing them.

Intertwined, weft and warp: Living Divani has rediscovered the thick design in cellulose rope of the original model, which gives life to a full, homogenous texture to be caressed with your fingers, available in a more airy weave with two threads or a denser four-thread version. The model created from experimenting with the leather scooby is set apart by its regular field of full and empty spaces: a three-dimensional thread of interwoven leather creates a square broad-knit design, a sophisticated net matched with a gunmetal coloured structure, whose nature is only revealed when seen up close. The most contemporary soul of Frog emerges in the total black Carbon Frog version, which combines a structure in carbon fibre with nylon interweave.

The seat structure has been shaped completely by hand with the use of multi-axial and unidirectional fabrics, overlapping orthogonally, to ensure structural rigidity in the objective of preserving the mechanical strength, while greatly lighten the weight.

The exterior finish for painting is completely done by hand by skilled artisans who have concurred in making this product unique and well-tended.

The choice of carbon fiber, polymeric material with high performances, is often aided by its physical and mechanical characteristics that define the known characteristic of innovative and eternal material, used more and more frequently in the field of aeronautics, automotive, marine and product design.

Another Living Divani must-have is Gray armchair designed by Piero Lissoni in 2011, which has been revived with new materials. Part of a group of products aimed at a more traditional style, it is set apart by its extremely clean lines, traced from the frame in solid oak with its empty geometrical forms: a basic armchair that is also delicate, now available as well with a woven backrest in the precious materials available in the collection.

Living Divani also continues its collaboration with young designers, the results of its perceptive talent scouting among new up-and-coming designers, which has characterized the company for the past years. It is personally coordinated by Carola Bestetti, second generation in the family company, in close cooperation with the art director, Piero Lissoni.

FJU is the first design for Living Divani by kaschkasch, a designer duo whose operating base is located in Cologne. It was presented for the first time at Salone Satellite 2014 where Living Divani noticed it and decided to include it in its own collection. FJU is an extremely linear desk, a practical foldable work space than can be closed to free up space whenever you need it, creating a wall-mounted container for small objects or a magazine rack with a captivating oak’s surface. This multi-purpose product is designed for the home, but is also perfect for contract projects. FJU desk summarises the purity and invention of Northern design with the Living Divani’s idea of elegance.

Elegant, unusual and with a strong character, the new George’s chair by the Spanish designer David Lopez Quincoces, in his third year of collaboration with the brand, confirms him to be one of Living Divani’s favourite signatures among the new generation. With a very simple design, George’s is made precious by the combination of materials and finishing: wicker, leather, rope, wood and metal are combined in multiple style, creating different possibility of use. The Light version emphasizes the graphic character of the black lacquered steel frame with its seat in solid ash wood or Iroko wood in the outdoor version. This exercise in pure geometry ranges from the triangle traced by the legs to the converging curves of the backrest. The woven version, on the other hand, transforms it into a minute play of threads, which converge and then separate, covering and giving a more precious aspect to the chair. The expressive and poetic strength of the material dominates the version in wicker with its retro atmosphere, and the refined variant in leather, both exclusively for indoor use, while colour becomes a leading player in the waxed rope option, designed for a double indoor/outdoor use.

Slender and sculptural, the Brasilia table by David Lopez Quincoces pays homage to the architect and visionary Oscar Niemeyer: a design which rejects straight angles, replacing them with a free and sensual curving, inspired by nature. A mixture of technology and intimism, the metal sheet moulds and folds like a thin sheet of paper, offering unconventional points of view. The purified design and meticulously attention to detail of this object perfectly reflects the company’s aesthetics.

The Nina stool by David Lopez Quincoces references a modern style with its elegant frame in steel rod. The stool is available in two different heights, an indoor/ outdoor version. An exercise in orthogonal projections, for a piece of furniture that is minimal and, at the same time, decorative.

Soft and multi-material, Casta is the armchair by LucidiPevere, the design studio of Paolo Lucidi and Luca Pevere based in Palmanova (in the province of Udine). The cylindrical legs in solid beech wood are united by a belt in lacquered or covered in leather sheet steel, which acts as a containment for the seat, a kind of snug belt which wraps around the soft and embracing padding, and personalising it as a fashion detail, playing with contrasting colours.

Merging Japanese traditional style with Italian design, the Inari console by mist-o, a designer duo composed of Tommaso Nani and Noa Ikeuchi who work between Milan and Yokohama appears as an elegant black monolith. Inari is composed of four elements in steel sheet brought together and lined up in one harmonic element. A material and immaterial alchemy, a balance of empty and full spaces marked by perfect symmetry, Inari is a piece of furniture sculpture, an opaque black macro- ideogram which personalises an area of the house, an office, or a hotel room, creating a refined writing area.

Salone del Mobile 2015 Pavilion 5 / Stand E19 – F18

With its five different settings of a luxurious hotel or dream home, the Living Divani stand at Salone del Mobile designed by Piero Lissoni, is a sophisticated contemporary refuge with warm and natural tones, where a light sculpture of neon, a tribute to Lucio Fontana, absorbs the energies and tensions, giving unexpected moments of relaxation.

The elegant Living Divani world is created with an initial double day-time environment that plays on the cross-reference between the Lipp sofa, enriched with a padded and quilted backrest to create a refined diamond-shaped decoration, and the new Easy Lipp sofa which recaptures the characteristic features, tempering them, moulding the environments with character and lightness. The setting is completed by Frog armchairs, an iconic product designed in 1995 and celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2015; the Plane coffee tables by Massimo Mariani composed by two tempered glass panels, encasing a slanting slab of solid wood veneered with StoneOak® plates; the three-piece Starsky table by David Lopez Quincoces with stackable circular tops decorated with a delicate inlaid wedge motif; the B3 coffee table by Victor Vasilev with its offset tops floating in the air; and the Anin stool by David Lopez Quincoces, displaying marked precision together with top quality materials.

In the bedroom, the Lipp Bed, which mirrors the style of the daytime area in the graphics of the head-board, is flanked by the bedside tables Stilt by Marco Guazzini, which conceal drawers of different heights and capacities, and Moon by mist-o, two side by side half circles that reveal its internal surfaces when opened. The Track bench by David Lopez Quincoces, with its pure design made precious by finishings, is placed at the foot of the bed, while alongside it we find the Gray armchairs like small sculptures with their varnished china red frame and woven backrest in square-knit leather. Finally, the wall features a display of FJU writing desks by kaschkasch offering a practical work area that can be folded up when not in use, creating an elegant magazine rack.

Screened by the Off Cut bookshelves by Nathan Yong featuring the new finishing in charcoal dyed walnut and glass shelves, the dining room can also be used as meeting room, offering the Brasilia table, slender and sculptural, together with George’s chairs, in the interwoven version, which transforms them into a minute play of threads. Both projects by David Lopez Quincoces.

In the second large living room, the atmosphere warms up to show different variations of Living Divani soft comfort. Between the two Rod sofas, distinguished by the possibility to differentiate the covering of the frame from that of the cushions enriched with the quilted detail of buttons at sight, stands an Extrasoft composition with its informal appearance and soft comfort, where cosy, welcoming elements, are placed alongside each other in regular geometries, enhanced by the coloured metal sheet Family Lounge tables.

Alongside the Lipp armchairs, which are distinguished by the stitching spread out on the three inner sides, we find the B3 coffee table by Victor Vasilev based on the idea of architecturally-inspired shapes, while the reception area is marked by a row of Mate clothes valets designed by (a+b) dominoni, quaquaro, lacquered in ruby red. These versatile objects come to life depending on how they are used in a given environment.

A suspended, timeless object, the Inari console table by mist-o offers a place of meditation and writing, while on the floor, the rugs of the Carpet Collection and Sin Titulo collection catches your eye with its graphical patterns.

Dalla leggiadra George’s di David Lopez Quincoces proposta nella variante Light, che mette in risalto il suo grafismo, oppure in quella intrecciata che la trasforma grazie ai diversi materiali, colori e destinazioni d’uso;

On the upper floor, the area dedicated to meetings with clients and contracting exploits space to the maximum by alternating Wedge tables designed by Arik Levy with work tops made to measure, personalised by a coloured mix of the brand’s chairs. From the elegant George’s chair by David Lopez Quincoces on display in the Light version which exalts its graphic nature and in different interwoven variations, which transform its materials, colours, and usages; to the trendy Grace by Giopato & Coombes whose common base is finished off with different coverings, almost like clothes to choose depending on your own taste; the practical mini Jelly with a swivelling base in stainless steel; and the classical Maja D. covered in fabric. Without forgetting the Frog armchairs, shown in a mix of new versions presented with a seat cushion to create a pleasant area of relax for informal meetings and interviews, with the Bolle coffee tables by Nathan Yong and Bukva bookshelves designed by Victor Vasilev setting the rhythm. Countless variations of the soft comfort of Living Divani, designed so that everyone, in their own home or at work, can find its favourite one, the one that perfectly matches their own style and character.

FuoriSalone
Design for Life – 25th Anniversary Elle Decor Italia Palazzo Reale, Milano
April 13th – May 24th, 2015

Supporting the magazine since its origins, Living Divani is among the companies invited to join the exhibition "Design for Life" which celebrates 25 years of Elle Decor Italia, in the evocative setting of Palazzo Reale from April 14th to May 24th. Conceived as a multimedia installation that alternates auteur videos and product setting, the exhibit enlightens the unique ability of the magazine to capture in its pages not only the best design production, but also the evolution of the way of living and lifestyles, observed from different perspectives: sociological, emotional, aesthetic and cultural.

Extrasoft and Frog are the two emblematic products selected by Elle Decor Italia for their watershed role in design, suggesting new approaches and new roads.

Modular sofa renowned for its informal look, Extrasoft summarizes in its genesis the entire evolution of Living Divani’s upholstery collection. Bestseller and visual icon of the company, Extrasoft is at once the symbol of the constant research carried on by the brand together with the art director Piero Lissoni to define new forms of relaxation, suggesting new ways of living and inspire new lifestyles.

The story begins in 2000 with Wall, the first model to be placed directly on the floor creating square lines’ volumes and platforms and rigorous angles: first expression of the neat and pure aesthetics that even today identifies the brand. In 2002, Wall evolves and becomes Extra Wall, the first 360 °sectional sofa thanks to its islands and platforms elements of different sizes: a path that "breaks" the patterns, as seat, backrest and armrest from a single piece, as usually intended until then, become three different elements, which can be freely assembled. A turning point, that rethinks the range of compositional solutions for both domestic environments and hospitality.

With the objective of designing a more reassuring product, replacing the idea of rigor with a new concept of softness, better suited to domestic interiors, by processing Extra Wall, in 2008 was born its soft variant Extrasoft.
The idea behind this new project was to create a gentler and malleable design: a product conceived with informal appearance and soft comfort, where cosy, welcoming elements, are placed alongside each other in regular geometries with uncertain contours.

Extrasoft maintains the typical "island" conformation of its predecessor, therefore the possibility to create compositions floating in space to compose an archipelago voted to a more flexible and human way of relaxation, and the concept of personalization as the ultimate goal of the customized comfort's idea, which over the years has become for Living Divani an indispensable value, the base of production even before the form.

“There are things that even after 20 years are still there, in their place, as new as ever. They last like a well-told story, one so beautiful that it becomes real. So real in fact, that you can even sit on it...”
Living Divani celebrates Frog, the armchair known for its unique low and wide shape, with the creation of its captivating miniature version.

3D printed of casting powder, starting from the scan of the real chair, Frog presents itself to the public in a glass case, with mirrored green base, autographed by its creator, Piero Lissoni.

A precious and sophisticated object that accurately reproduces the technical and aesthetic characteristics of the original. This story, jumping from a postcard to augmented reality, describes the path of a Company that loves to experiment and is attentive to innovation, technological and digital evolution, in compliance with the founding values.