Pictured at the Masters’ Houses in Dessau,
designed by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius,
the original ‘A.B.C.’ chair (left) and more
recent ‘A.B.C.D.’ chair and ottoman (opposite),
all by Antonio Citterio, for Flexform
Artwork (Le pigment de la lumière by
Olaf Nicolai) courtesy of Galerie Eigen + ArtMODERN LOVE
Flexform meets the Dessau Bauhaus
Photography: Marcus GaabBefore the Modern Movement, buildings and furniture
tended towards the decorative. The architectural
landmarks of the early 20th century, even the newly
constructed, futuristic skyscrapers of New York, featured
the complex patterns and curvilinear lines of the modish
Art Nouveau movement. New radicals of the 1920s,
Eliel Saarinen, Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe,
changed all that. Looking to the power and energy of
machines, the manufacture of aeroplanes, cars and
ocean liners, they advocated the use of industrial-grade
tubular steel and concrete. Gratuitous ornamentation
was rejected, bold minimalism embraced, structural
innovation championed. ‘A great epoch has begun,’
announced Le Corbusier. ‘There exists a new spirit.’
The spirit of the Modern Movement, which still
influences designers today, is evident in the elegant
leather and tubular steel architecture of Flexform’s
‘A.B.C.’ seating system. Designed in 1996 by architect
Antonio Citterio, who has overseen the entire Flexform
collection for the past 40 years, the ‘A.B.C.’ comprises
an armchair and an ottoman, the low seats and cubical
frames nodding to the work of Gropius and Saarinen.
Flexform uses only the highest quality full-grain
leathers, rigorously tanned in Italy and aniline-dyed
employing a process called passante that ensures deep
absorption and colour consistency. Metal frames come
in satin, chrome, burnish, black chrome and champagne,
or finished with paint or an epoxy powder coat that
creates a securely anchored layer of polymers resistant
to scrapes. A sophisticated reclining mechanism, with
various seating positions, offers added comfort.
To honour two decades of the ‘A.B.C.’ system and its
more recent armless relative, the ‘A.B.C.D.’ chair, also by
Citterio, Wallpaper* travelled to the Gropius-designed
Dessau Bauhaus in Germany to create images of the
furniture in the environment that inspired it.
The elegant block construction of the Flexform chairs
echoes the cubist lines of the buildings; the spirit of the
Modern Movement distilled into a luxury design icon.
More at wallpaper.com/w-bespoke/flexform; flexform.it∑