Pigreco Chair

As a student at the Univer­sity of Venice in 1959, Archi­tec­ture Studies focused Tobia Scarpa designed the now iconic Pigreco chair as his grad­u­a­tion project. By estab­lish­ing a dynamic of trian­gu­lar and circu­lar shapes, Scarpa wanted to create a ​“sense of space” with the Pigreco chair, assem­bling a balance with these shapes and inter­sect­ing lines. Now, the Pigreco chair is being reis­sued for Tacchini, captur­ing the same design with new mate­ri­als and finishes to fit the contem­po­rary land­scape. The wooden struc­ture is avail­able in Canaletto walnut and ash wood, and the flat cushion seat is uphol­stered in leather or textile.

The trian­gu­lar shape is the center focus of the Pigreco. With a trian­gle at the base and as the support­ing struc­ture under the seat, this created insta­bil­ity in the chair’s inte­gral struc­ture. To solve this, Scarpa referred back to the tradi­tional four-legged chairs, but he kept the defin­ing shapes. He placed two legs at each corner in the front and gath­ered the last two legs in the back as ​“sister legs”, an element where both legs come together like magnets, not quite touch­ing until the hori­zon­tal wooden joint near the end of the legs.

The semi-circles come into play for the seat and the back­rest. These two elements collab­o­rate by build­ing a curve that is invit­ing and creates an embrace. The back­rest, accord­ing to Scarpa, is like a ​“big horn” with the curving seat resting atop the multi­ple trian­gles for support. Overall, the Pigreco chair under­stands the conver­sa­tion of inno­va­tion and simplic­ity, lending to a comfort­able and modern piece.

Context Gallery is not only excited to share the Pigreco chair, but we are also pleased to offer the reis­sued Soriana Collec­tion by Tobia and Afra Scarpa. The Soriana collec­tion, created in the 1970s, has been rein­tro­duced in 2021 by Cassina with new chro­matic combi­na­tions of fabric and leather. Also avail­able in our RAF Simons Kvadrat textiles.