Piero Lissoni

Indus­trial but playful might sound like a contra­dic­tion, but in the hands of Piero Lissoni, it makes perfect sense. The Italian archi­tect and designer has become one of the most accom­plished of his gener­a­tion, with collab­o­ra­tions with every­one from Alessi to Flos to Tecno. After train­ing as an archi­tect at the pres­ti­gious Politec­nico di Milano Univer­sity, Lissoni formed his own firm to create witty takes on modernism’s clean lines. 

In 1996, he launched a visual commu­ni­ca­tion agency, Graph.x, followed 17 years later by Lissoni Architet­tura, which handles inte­rior design projects. But Lissoni’s furnish­ings really show off his charm: his Otto seating system for Cassina, named for the way the numeral is pronounced in Italian, tosses a titular number of comfy cush­ions into a slim aluminum rectan­gle for a perfect blend of hard and soft. And his Extra­soft system for Living Divani tosses away the frame entirely. It’s a chic take on the kid’s bedroom favorite, the beanbag, but with a lifetime’s worth of possible arrangements.