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Edra s.p.a. is an Italian manufacturing company specialized in the creation of innovative designer furniture.
The name "Edra" is a modification of the Greek word "έδρα", meaning a place for philosophical discussion. Founded in 1987, Edra is an international design furniture company that is based in Italy. It is known for manufacturing designs that challenge preconceived notions of how a chair, sofa, table, bed, storage cabinet, or even a mirror can look. Working with several critically-acclaimed designers like Francesco Binfaré, Humberto and Fernando Campana, and Jacopo Foggini – all of whom use materials and technologies in unexpected ways combined with artistic tradition to create furniture and objects that are profoundly sculptural seemingly often with no historic aesthetic precedent.
In 1992, Binfaré was invited by Massimo Morozzi to design for Edra. His early work for Edra included L'Homme et la Femme (1993), Tangeri (1994) and Angels (1996). In the 21st century, Binfare has created a number of new seating icons - On the Rocks (2004), Flap (2006), Absolu (2015), and Essential (2016).
Humberto and Fernando have been frequent collaborators with Edra creating numerous award-winning designs that include chairs, sofas, tables, cabinets, beds, lighting, and mirrors. All of their work is seemingly underscored by the assembly - nailing, riveting, stitching, knotting, welding, clipping - of individual elements into an overall form.
Having long experimented with manipulating polycarbonate by hand rather than mold, Foggini has created several chair designs for Edra including Alice, Ella, Gila, and Gina.
MOMA – Flap Sofa (2000); [1] Vermelha (1993); [2] Corallo (2004) [3]
Cooper Hewitt – Vermelha (1993) [4]
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston – Vermelha (1993), Favela (1991)
Metropolitan Museum of Art – Favela (1991) [5]
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art – Favela (1991) [6]
Herman Miller, officially MillerKnoll Inc, is an American company that produces office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings, including the Aeron chair, Noguchi table, Marshmallow sofa, Mirra chair, and the Eames Lounge Chair. Herman Miller is also credited with the 1968 invention of the office cubicle under then-director of research Robert Propst.
Karim Rashid is an Egyptian-born and Canadian raised industrial designer. His designs include luxury goods, furniture, lighting, surface design, brand identity and packaging. Time magazine has described him as the "most famous industrial designer in all the Americas" and the "Prince of Plastic". He is based in New York City, as well as Belgrade, Miami and India.
Mario Bellini is an Italian architect and designer. After graduating from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1959, Bellini pursued a career as an architect, exhibition designer, product designer, and furniture designer, during the Italian economic boom of the late 20th century. Bellini has received several accolades in a variety of design fields, including eight Compasso d'Oro awards, and the Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Triennale di Milano. In 2019, the Italian President of the Chamber of Deputies, Roberto Fico, awarded Bellini a career medal, in recognition of his contributions to Italian architecture and design.
Gaetano Pesce is an Italian architect and a design pioneer of the 20th century. Pesce was born in La Spezia in 1939, and he grew up in Padua and Florence. During his 50-year career, Pesce has worked as an architect, urban planner, and industrial designer. His outlook is considered broad and humanistic, and his work is characterized by an inventive use of color and materials, asserting connections between the individual and society, through art, architecture, and design to reappraise mid-twentieth-century modern life.
Paola Antonelli is an Italian architect, curator, author, editor, and educator. She is the Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, where she also serves as the founding Director of Research and Development. She has been described as "one of the 25 most incisive design visionaries in the world" by TIME magazine.
The Campana Brothers, consisting of Humberto Campana and Fernando Campana (1961–2022) are Brazilian furniture designers.
Knoll, is an American company that manufactures office systems, seating, storage systems, tables, desks, textiles, as well as accessories for the home, office, and higher education. The company is the licensed manufacturer of furniture designed by notable architects and designers such as David Adjaye, Harry Bertoia, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Florence Knoll, Frank Gehry, Charles Gwathmey, Maya Lin, Marc Newson, Ini Archibong, Eero Saarinen, and Lella and Massimo Vignelli, under the company's KnollStudio division. Over 40 Knoll designs can be found in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Richard Sapper was a German industrial designer based in Milan, Italy. He is considered one of the most important designers of his generation, his products typically featuring a combination of technical innovation, simplicity of form and an element of wit and surprise. He received numerous international design awards, including 11 Compasso d'Oro awards and the Raymond Loewy Foundation's Lucky Strike Designer Award. His designs are held in many museums around the world including the Victoria and Albert (V&A) and Design Museum in London, the Pompidou Center in Paris, the ADI Design Museum in Milan, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, which counts over 17 of Sapper's designs in its collection.
Marco Zanuso was a leading Italian Modernist architect and designer.
Yves Béhar is a Swiss-born American designer, entrepreneur and educator. He is the founder and principal designer of Fuseproject, an industrial design and brand development firm. Béhar is also co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of August Smart Lock - a smart lock company acquired by Assa Abloy in 2017 - and co-founder of Canopy, a co-working space based in San Francisco.
Finn Juhl was a Danish architect, interior and industrial designer, most known for his furniture design. He was one of the leading figures in the creation of Danish design in the 1940s and he was the designer who introduced Danish modern to America.
Paul Winthrop McCobb was an American modern furniture designer, textile designer, painter, and industrial designer.
Lella Vignelli was an Italian architect, designer, and businesswomen. She collaborated closely throughout much of her life with her husband Massimo Vignelli, with whom she founded Vignelli Associates in 1971.
Busk + Hertzog is a Danish design team created by Flemming Busk and Stephan Hertzog in 2000. They are well-known for their award-winning furniture designs. Both the designers; Flemming Busk and Stephan Hertzog are two of the most awarded Danish designers. They have won international design awards such as the Red Dot Awards, IF Awards, and Good Design Awards.
Hella Jongerius is a Dutch industrial designer.
Afra and Tobia Scarpa are award winning postmodern Italian architects and designers. Their pieces can be found in museums across the United States and Europe, including collections in MoMA and the Louvre Museum. They have collaborated with companies such as B&B Italia, San Lorenzo Silver, and Knoll International. They have won a number of awards such as the Compasso d'Oro in 1969 to the International Forum Design in 1992. Their design work consists of architecture and everyday household items including, furniture, clothing, interior design, art glass. They focused on the technical and aesthetic possibilities of materials in their designs. The couple was greatly influenced by Tobia’s father, Carlo Scarpa, a Venetian architect and designer.
Ruud-Jan Kokke is a Dutch designer who started his career in the mid-eighties and became known for his furniture, inventive objects, interiors and designs for public space. He has received numerous nominations and awards. He is married to the visual artist and jewellery designer Petra Hartman.
Zanotta is an Italian furniture company particularly known for the iconic pieces of Italian design it produced in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. These include the "Sacco" bean bag chair and "Blow", the first mass-produced inflatable chair. The company was founded in 1954 and has its main plant in Nova Milanese. In 1984 Zanotta established its experimental division, Zabro, headed by Alessandro Guerriero, with Alessandro Mendini and Stefano Casciani. Since the death of its founder, Aurelio Zanotta, in 1991, it has been run by members of his family. Zanotta's products were awarded the Compasso d'Oro in 1967, 1979, 1987 and 2020.
Nendo is a Japanese design firm founded in 2002 by Oki Sato, that works on design projects globally. The first office was situated in Tokyo. In 2005, the second office was established in Milan. The company works with numerous brands and have won multiple awards over the course of 17 years of establishment. Nendo is known for its simple and minimalist design with subtle influences from Japanese, and Scandinavian aesthetics. Currently the positions for CEO, COO and CFO are occupied by Sato Oki, Ito Akihiro, and Hama Takaaki, respectively.
Heller is an American company founded in 1971 that makes and sells indoor/outdoor furniture and accessories. It is headquartered in Westport, Connecticut, United States. Its founder, Alan Heller, invited well-known architects and designers including Mario Bellini, Frank Gehry, and Lella and Massimo Vignelli to create products for the company.