Skip to content

Posted in Culture

Iconic Botolo Chair Resurfaces

Botolo Chair Vintage Wright Auction
Vintage Botolo Chair, sold at Wright Auction in 2016

Italian Icon Cini Boeri’s 1973 Botolo chair sees a resur­gence. A plush seat supported by three large tubular legs has a bold sensi­bil­ity that takes admir­ers right back to 1973, when it was designed by Cini Boeri for Arflex.




The Botolo Chair, for Arflex
Botolo Chair, for Arflex. 

The Botolo chair’s molded polyurethane foam seat, uphol­stered in fabric, leather, or fur, contrasts with the smooth lacquered metal supports to form a delight­ful chair with a strik­ing person­al­ity. Rein­tro­duced by Arflex in 2014, the groovy furnish­ing has since had a chance to influ­ence a new set of design aficionados.




Cini-Boeri-Context Gallery
Cini Boeri, 2016. Photo by Chris Moyse.

One person who has been capti­vated by Botolo is John Pawson, an archi­tect known for his breath­tak­ing mini­mal­ist forms. For the Jaffa hotel in Israel, recently featured on the cover of Inte­rior Design, Pawson departs from his signa­ture restrained style in a few key instances. A sea of dark yellow Botolo chairs with white legs deco­rate the bar and lounge, located in the chapel of the former 19th-century hospi­tal that now houses the hotel. The setup creates a wonder­ful juxta­po­si­tion between the grand histor­i­cal space and the über-playful modern chairs.

Interior-Design-John-Pawson-Jaffa-hotel-Tel-Aviv-bar-lounge-1018-Photography-by-Amit-Geron_Interior-Design Interior Design Magazine
Archi­tect: John Pawson, Botolo Chair for Jaffa Hotel. Credit: Inte­rior Design magazine 

The Botolo chair is an unsung master­piece from Boeri’s ouvre. Orig­i­nals, in an amazing variety of colors and fabrics, occa­sion­ally appear at auction houses. Now that Botolo is in produc­tion once again, this multi­func­tional side chair is seeing resur­gence far and wide — a journey that’s evident at the Jaffa hotel.



South-Yarra-Residence-by-Fiona-Lynch-Yellowtrace-10-1
Inte­rior Designer: Fiona Lynch. Credit, Yellowtrace

Shop Post