My Space | Designer Thomas Geerlings | Photography by Katia Gatkowska
The Maralunga, produced by Cassina, is one of Vico Magistretti’s most popular designs—a future classic that’s being discovered by a new audience gravitating to the 1970s.
Created in 1973 and recipient of the prestigious Compasso d’Oro award in 1979, the Maralunga is both stylish and extremely comfortable. “The task of an architect is to look at the usual things with new eyes—get rid of schemes and rules. When I create a table, first of all, I ask myself if it’s right to be flat,” Magistretti mentioned at the Italian Design Club.
Magistretti was an architect, town planner, and industrial designer—who looked at the Maralunga with ‘new eyes.’ Conceived as a three-seater and a two-seater lounge, as well as an armchair and an ottoman, the design, embedded with a steel structure, breaks away from other lounges and chairs with its moveable pillow-like backrest, aligned to each seat; hence, there being two or three per suite. These pillows, featuring a Dacron fibre and polyester wadding, also conceal a chain mechanism that allows these backrests to remain in a position that’s most comfortable for the user—with the armrest simply creating a curvaceous edge and additional pillow to use when one is vertical. While the recent models of the Maralunga include the moveable cushions, they also feature new piping and slightly broader proportions than the original design, with the 675 Maralunga 40 maxi having a 35 per cent wider and 10 per cent deeper seat.
Available in leather and fabric, including sumptuous velvet, it’s a popular choice for architects and designers—including Tobias Partners principal Richard Peters, who was born when the Maralunga was first released. “It’s one of the few sofas that can easily ‘morph’ into something else,” Peters says, who often refers to the backrests as akin to ‘floppy ears.’ Peters also sees the form of the lounges and the armchair as, given the date of his own birth, having a “slightly nostalgic feel.” “Like all of Magistretti’s designs, they’re driven by functionality as much as by aesthetics,” he adds.
Beaumaris House by Clare Cousins Architects | Photography by Sharyn Cairns
Maralunga by Vico Magistretti
While some prefer to have an entire suite of Maralunga, including the arcmchair and the ottoman, Peters enjoys seeing the lounge combined with other strong pieces of contemporary furniture. “Its soft and fluid lines easily work with more angular armchairs, such as the Utrecht armchair, designed by Rietveld in 1925,” he says. One of the reasons the Maralunga is popular today, apart from being part of the 1970s revival, is its lack of pretension or formality. It could easily form part of a formal lounge setting or fit as comfortably in a family lounge or a rumpus room. The chair and ottoman could easily be found in a home office or a main bedroom, doubling as a reading chair. Few other designs offer this flexibility, or the recent development by Cassina of being able to remove the fabric from the upholstery.
As with most contemporary architects, Magistretti had an aversion to superfluous design and decorative or patterned upholstery. This certainly allowed Magistretti to focus on the form, said to have been born out of a simple drawing that came with cushions that could easily move and adapt ergonomically to the person’s position—a tour de force in design that is presently a future classic but will easily carry the label of ‘icon’ in a few years.
Longwood Apartment by Studio Prineas | Photography by Chris Warnes
Maralunga by Vico Magistretti
Maralunga by Vico Magistretti
