by Bailey Shelton | photos courtesy of MDF Italia
A SOFA DESIGNED FOR THE PRESENT AND FUTURE
Comfort, flexibility, ease of movement, and a clear vision of the full life cycle. These might be a vision for your health and wellness, but they’re also the guiding principles for an award-winning design from Snøhetta and MDF Italia.
MDF Italia is a home brand with a long history of modern Italian design: clean lines, modular feel, and bold colors. The fourth generation of the brand has taken the helm, and under their stewardship the brand is expanding that language.
“Bruno Fattorini, the founder of MDF Italia, started from the idea of creating one system that can seem simple but is complex inside,” says Marco Cassina, head of marketing at MDF Italia. “We have to keep the same vision in terms of product development, but we’re adding a kind of visual softness to bring into contemporary conversations.”
The Array modular sofa is one example of this thesis of evolution. Its design, in collaboration with Norwegian architecture and design firm Snøhetta, examines the root expectations we have for a sofa, and blends the comfort elements with functional and sustainable features—a completely customizable, snakelike modular system, lightweight, easily maneuverable sections, and soft layers for comfortable seating.
“Usually when you speak with a product designer they arrive to the first dialogue with sketches, details, or innovative materials… The approach that we had with Snøhetta started with a presentation that was almost sociological, ‘Why do people need a sofa?’ And the bigger question was, ‘What is comfort today?’” says Cassina.
The various intricacies of the Array have taken MDF Italia’s design beyond similar modular sofas and into the winning spot of the ADI Compasso d’Oro, one of the most prestigious awards in Italian design. This year, the Array has appeared at the Salone del Mobile in Milan and Copenhagen’s 3 Days of Design, among others. Although MDF Italia distributes their furniture globally, the Array can be found a little closer to home via Haute Living’s Chicago showroom.
On his way to accept the Compasso d’Oro, Marius Myking of Snøhetta told an interviewer, “Production itself is obviously an incredibly important part of the entire sustainability picture, but we need to look to a much bigger degree into the entire ecosystem. It’s not just the object itself; it’s how it’s going to be used, and for how long it’s going to be used.”
Snøhetta is most recognized for its work at a larger scale: They are responsible for the angular exterior of the Oslo Opera House, which resembles an iceberg sinking into the sea. In 2017, they designed the revamped pedestrian plazas in New York’s Times Square. Most recently, they’ve made headlines for their design of the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, which reflects the former president’s legacy of environmental advocacy through natural materials that blend into the surrounding landscape.
More than an architectural firm, Snøhetta brings the same architectural design principles to their product design. A sofa isn’t simply a sofa, it’s all the expectation that the furniture encompasses.
“We felt very strong synergy with the brand philosophy of Snøhetta in terms of the approach to their work. They put a lot of meaning inside every single thing that they do,” says Cassina.
The Array distinguishes itself from other modular designs by using sustainability principles as a baseline for long-term use. Each of the interlocking sections can be removed and replaced individually, and covers are unique to each piece as well. If a glass of wine spills or damage is caused, a single section can be repaired without replacing the whole sofa. MDF Italia has recently expanded the line to include outdoor options for the textile covers.
In terms of production, the sofa meets sustainability best practices by using recycled materials for its hollowed hard plastic body— hollow so that each section is lightweight for easy moving, plastic to make good use of materials that don’t biodegrade easily. The result is a modern, sleek centerpiece designed with its full lifetime in mind.
