A Major Sponsor of the new Museum of Contemporary Art, Space and B&B Italia collaborated with Elizabeth Ann Macgregor to develop a furniture collection for the museum's new building by Architect Marshall.
Well known for their theatre and museum collaborations, most recently B&B Italia worked with architect Zaha Hadid on the MAXXI Museum in Rome. Like the MAXXI, here the conversation was one of embracing the needs of a busy museum, in the case of the MCA more than 100,000 visitors in its first two weeks of opening, and the importance of responding to the architecture itself.
Works selected are by New York based designer Jeffrey Bernett, Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa and Italian architect and designer Antonio Citterio, each piece chosen for its clear, sculptural approach in tune with the building's big, bold form.
One of the highlights of the collection is the UP series by Gaetano Pesce. Designed in 1969 at the height of the pop art movement, it is now one of the world’s most exhibited designs that puts the MCA in good company with MoMA New York and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
While the 1980s are back in a big way in the fashion houses of Paris and Milan, the furniture industry is also having a revival – or in this case a relaunch – of one Italian-Austrian designer Paolo Piva, and his most famous design the Alanda.