Luisa chair designed by Franco Albini for Cassina with wooden structure available in American walnut, natural ashwood or ashwood stained black; backrest and seat steel frame and polyurethane foam padding. Upholstery available in fabric or leather.
The Luisa armchair project was devised during fifteen years of continuous variations, with five “editions” to which technical improvements were made each time and interpreted as opportunities to refine the “substance of the shape”. The last version was the only one to be called Luisa, the name of Albini’s personal assistant, and also the wife of his closest associate, Gino Colombini.
This armchair won the Compasso d’oro in 1955. Even though it is a remake of a classic piece, it was conceived with the idea of rationalising the components and using the shape as an investigative instrument to explore the methodological possibilities of the project. The conclusion of a long research process therefore also incorporated the beginning of new processes, acting as a stimulus to make new transformations due to the level of quality achieved. The individual elements are joined together by screws or flush fitted, with thickness increasing at the joints as if to emphasise the junctions. The Luisa chair therefore represents an analysis of planes intersecting in space to create a management instrument for the project due to the precision of the compositional framework.
Starting price (VAT included): € 1.617,72