Cassina

Cassina S.p.A. was founded in 1927 in the north­ern Italian region of Brianza. Oper­a­tions were initially focused on wood­work­ing and grad­u­ally expanded to include modern furnish­ings. During the mid-1950’s, Cassina engaged the talents of legendary archi­tects such as Gio Ponti, Afra and Tobia Scarpa, Mario Bellini, and Vico Magistretti for design collaborations.

In order to broaden the appeal of the brand, Franco Cassina initi­ated a vision­ary collab­o­ra­tion between Le Corbusier and Cassina in the 1960’s. The company now holds the exclu­sive world­wide license to the icon’s works from the Le Corbusier Foun­da­tion. Build­ing upon the success of that license, the company launched the I Maestri Collec­tion (Masters Collec­tion), which includes major icons of design history includ­ing Charles Rennie Mack­in­tosh, Gerrit Rietveld, E. Gunnar Asplund, Char­lotte Perriand, and Franco Albini.

Today, contem­po­rary archi­tects and design­ers continue the company’s legacy of manu­fac­tur­ing land­marks of modern furni­ture design. Design­ers Piero Lissoni, Patrick Jouin, Jean Marie Massaud, Ronan and Erwan Bouroul­lec, and others epit­o­mize Cassina’s commit­ment to the Italian design ideals of crafts­man­ship and quality.

In 2015, Patri­cia Urquiola became art direc­tor of the storied brand. The Spanish designer is working with the company to update its show­rooms and revive pieces from its rich archive. In the mean­time, she’s also bring­ing her keen eye for color to new and excit­ing palettes across the manu­fac­tur­er’s collec­tions. In 2017, Cassina cele­brated its 90th anniver­sary with a special book and exhi­bi­tion in Milan. Context Gallery has been a trusted partner of Cassina for over a decade.