Hasta La Ideas

Product news: the seat of this chair by Venetian designer Luca Nichetto is made of folded felt.

Called Motek, the design by Stockholm-based Luca Nichetto for Italian brand Cassina is pressure-moulded to make it rigid enough to support a person’s weight without losing the lightweight qualities of the fabric.

Origami-inspired folds give extra support to the structure.

The design comes with wooden or steel legs and there’s also a version upholstered in leather.

Nichetto presented the chair at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan last month, where he also showed cabinets carved with geometric patterns for Casamania and a TV-like lamp for Foscarini – see all design by Luca Nichetto.

Read our interview with the new Salone del Mobile president on how he plans to tackle issues that “damage Milan” and see all our stories about Milan 2013.

Other felt products we’ve featured recently include a chair with a pressure-moulded seat by Patricia Urquiola for Moroso and a seed-shaped pod for working or napping in peace – see more stories about designs in felt.

Here’s some more information from Luca Nichetto:

The inspiration behind Motek chair is a sheet of paper, which is flexible and lightweight by its very nature. Originally, a sheet of paper cannot bear weights, but the Japanese art of origami – which, with a series of folds, creates forms and structures that can support weights – the same sheet takes on a new lease of life.

Thanks to a new technology for Cassina, such as pressure molding, a sheet of felt is folded, which will bring the necessary rigidity to the body of the chair for it to support weights without losing the lightness of the original material.

In this project, the search for details and the experimentation with materials typical of the collaboration between Nichetto and Cassina led to a felt version of the chair, which comes in three different shades, as well as to a leather version, where the seams highlight the folds characterizing the aesthetics of the seat.

The adaptability to the different consumers’ tastes is yet another feature sought by Nichetto for Motek, which was obtained through a series of combinations of structure, legs and body.

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for Cassina appeared first on Dezeen.