Palomba Serafini Associati co-founder and Italian architect Roberto Palomba visits Sydney to launch Casa Kartell at Space Furniture.
A self-confessed travel addict, Italian designer and regular Kartell contributor, Roberto Palomba, co-founder of Palomba Serafini Associati (PS+A) with Ludovica Serafini, has just stepped off a plane from Africa via Singapore to promote a new collaboration between Kartell and Space Furniture. This is his eighth visit to Australia and admits he is a huge fan of everything Australia has to offer—except the spiders. While Serafini oversees the studio’s architecture projects and is obliged to remain in Italy, Palomba finds his constant travel a joyful experience. “While I’m travelling I am working, I’m thinking, watching and learning,” Palomba says. “It allows me to approach things from a different angle and reorganise my thoughts. I’m originally from the island of Sardinia so travel means the freedom to explore.”
Casa Kartell, the 450 square-metre presentation of a complete home environment, exclusively made up of Kartell products, has been in the works since last year’s furniture fair in Milan. The team at Space have brilliantly brought this to life with key Kartell classics from the 1960’s through the 1990’s seamlessly intertwined with new releases from the brand. Encompassing a master bedroom, child’s bedroom, home office, lounge, dining and cinema room, Casa Kartell reveals the breadth of the Kartell collection while emphasising real-life personality. “Sometimes designers and the furniture industry are so busy coming up with new ideas and creating new products that we forget that the ultimate goal is to make people’s interiors comfortable, inviting and inspirational,” Palomba suggests.
After decades of developing a clear and consistent brand DNA, Kartell CEO Claudio Luti has, in recent years, been joined by his children—Marketing and Retail Director Lorenza Luti and Worldwide Commercial Director Federico Luti. Together, they are evolving Kartell into a complete interiors brand, defined by personality, colour and sophistication.
Co-founder of Palomba Serafini Associati (PS+A) Roberto Palomba
Famous for its innovative use of plastics since 1949, with only one foray into wood in its first 70 years, Kartell is now carefully embracing other materials. Designs by Palomba and Serafini are an important part of this. “The move to hybrid materials started with Philippe Starck’s Smart Wood collection in 2019,” Palomba says. “This was a demonstration that Kartell is not just about plastic. It remains an incredibly important part of the brand but if a designer can find a way to express the same values as plastic than any material can be Kartell,” Palomba says. Recent work by PS+A supports this assertion and includes the hugely successful HiRay outdoor furniture collection inspired by the early work of Charles and Ray Eames. “I was thinking to myself ‘What do I like most about Kartell’? My answer was its transparency….. Wire gives this transparency and allows leaves, wind and rain to pass right through,” Palomba says. While superficially simple, the design took two years to perfect and was ultimately a masterclass in reduction, with every wire using the least amount of material possible to fulfil its job.
The Albert table is another of PS+A’s designs to break new ground for Kartell. The table is made from 100% aluminum with a solid ceramic top—both of which are fully recyclable. “The design came about not because we wanted to do a sensual looking table with a Baroque shape,” Palomba says, “but because the particular curve of the leg was discovered to provide the best strength and stability from the smallest amount of material.” This interest in design history and technically advanced solutions permeates the work of PS+A.
The Belvedere chair, named after the famous Viennese palace, was designed in 2024 by PS+A to provide an of utterly simple and super lightweight stacking chair. Utilising a surprising new material combination, the seat and back are in woven cane while the frame is in a form of recycled plastic. “Belevedre is a new version of the type of industrial chair made famous by Thonet in the 19th century. Replacing bent wood with a recycled thermoplastic enabled us to sculpt the chair in one continuous piece but we thought it needed something a little chaotic, something a little rough to make it more expressive. Combining the precision of plastic with the organic qualities of cane was like we had blown life into the design, it was miraculous,” Palomba recalls.
Exciting new designs by Palomba and Serafini have continued to be released in 2025, like the voluptuous Super Tubby sofa, a product that signals the future of Kartell as it transforms into a truly holistic interior brand. “At the end of the day we don’t just furnish a space, we inhabit it and we need to make it our own.”
