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Ico Armchair

c. 2016

by Ora Ïto
for Cassina

Ico Armchair

by Ora Ïto
for  Cassina

or Call to Order

The Ico armchair designed by Ora Ïto for Cassina features a curved wooden frame with sharp graphic cutouts inserted into the armrests. The envelop­ing struc­ture is instantly recog­niz­able and makes refer­ence to Ico Parisi’s 814’ chair (a Cassina classic designed in 1950). Its concise contour animates the tradi­tional wooden seat, intro­duc­ing a fresh take on a classic frame­work. The chair’s natu­rally veined wood is accom­pa­nied by careful uphol­stery work: soft inserts uphol­stered in fabric or leather are enriched with stitch­ing details from the end of the armrest to the back­rest, a func­tional and also aesthetic choice. The Ico armchair is avail­able in 4 open pore matt finishes, (natural ash-wood or ash-wood stained black, walnut or red) making the piece extremely versa­tile for all kinds of architectural settings.

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Ora Ïto

In 1997, Ora Ïto hijacked top brands with his virtual Vuitton and Apple products that instantly became global icons of the digital revolution. A phenomenon in pop culture, he is the youngest designer of his generation to collaborate with jewels of luxury goods and industry, after the huge multi-acclaimed success of his aluminum Heineken bottle.

Cassina, Cappellini, Bouygues, Alstom, Laguiole, Zanotta and Accor highly rate his sculptural design that has become a mark of modernity.

The multidisciplinary, transversal Ora ïto studio has since gone from telephone to architecture, from furniture to the hotel industry, from perfume to tramways and from flying saucers to restaurants, manipulating symbols to simplify them. A tenacious methodology for which he has invented a neologism: simplicity, decoding today’s DNA to conceptualize future mutations. His fluid vocabulary materializes movement reinventing streamlining in the digital era and giving shape to the desires of our contemporary society.

In 2013, he created MAMO, an art center on the roof terrace of the mythical Cité Radieuse designed by Le Corbusier in Marseille. A historical and contemporary place high in the sky, with a 360° view that summarizes his passion for levitation and lightness, ‘Defying the laws of gravity creates feelings that go beyond aesthetics.’ The greatest contemporary artists from Xavier Veilhan to Dan Graham are exhibited there before Ito inaugurates an architectural collaboration with Daniel Buren, the master of French conceptual art.

Ora ïto now attracts media and economic benefits that make him a unique player in the international design arena. Wallpaper ranked him amongst the top 40 most influential designers under 40 years old. He was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2011.

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