Agility is a cornerstone of designing longevous and sustainable spaces. Furniture that is durable, in both materiality and aesthetics, is key to achieving this. Each of Mara’s four newest design collaborations takes on a flexible quality, embracing myriad spatial applications.

With a focus on craftsmanship, technology and top-tier design collaborations, Mara’s 63 years of in-house production at its Brescia, Italy, headquarters gives it an edge of expertise in furniture-making that transcends office uses alone. This is especially evident from the brand’s activity this year, which saw the release of four new versatile product lines, that expand the relevance of its furniture beyond the workplace.

Argo Libro.

Follow.

The newest members of Mara’s product family each continue to blur the boundaries between work, living and hospitality environments, and complement its best-selling collections such as Argo Libro multifunctional, space-saving tables, and Follow mechanical sit-stand tables.

Perhaps best demonstrating its foray into flexible furniture is its collaboration with Michele De Lucchi and his studio AMDL Circle on the seating collection Typo. Comprising a chair and a stool and born out of an unorthodox manufacturing process, the instant classic line speaks to the experimental nature the designer shares with Mara. Typo, as in a typing mistake, reinterprets the traditional office chair on castors, challenging the preconceived notion of what the product should look like.

Typo.

What may first appear as a production flaw, is the central feature of the chair’s distinct design; the chair’s frame is characterized by a ripple-like effect, a crucial aspect of its aesthetic and function. The material deforms by bending a square-shaped steel tube along a diagonal, causing it to curl and sharply crease. This detail generates the intentional 'error' that is the soul of the project. ‘A mistake, which together with Mara through a carefully refined technique, we can control the desired effect and we can guarantee the mass production of the collection,’ says the AMDL Circle project team.

A round wood seat and backrest and a soft regenerated cotton strip detail at the head of the frame, provide contrast to the geometric steel structure. These material choices, are not only durable and recyclable, ensuring the product’s longevity, but also lend it a unique quality fitting it to a variety of hospitality and workplace settings.

Icon High-Back.

The spirit of versatility also guided Mara’s expansion of the Marcello Ziliani-designed Icon collection with two new chairs, the New Icon and Icon High-Back, both designed for multipurpose use. The New Icon is moulded in a polypropylene shell, a durable material that suits it to both indoor and outdoor contexts, such as the office or high-contact settings. A removable and washable soft seat cushion enriches the chair’s tactility. The Icon High-Back, also made of polypropylene is expressed with a high, padded backrest and seat cushion, giving it a sophisticated and comfortable quality.

Foil.

Mara’s manufacturing expertise gives way to technical mechanical systems that enable the broad functionality of all its products, core to this notion of flexibility. This is especially evident in the technical yet streamlined design of Foil, the table and the debut design for the Italian manufacturer by Christophe Pillet. Characterized by its refined silhouette and frame, the table is integrated with Mara mechanisms that allow for the easy removal of the tabletop to reveal storage space underneath, perfect for the office or home setting.

Elle.

The Elle bookcase, designed by Ferrucio Leviani, takes on a similar adaptable quality. Its modular structure and technical specifications allows it to take on numerous compositions for different spaces and user needs. Its characteristic L-shaped element allows for multiple possibilities to create open shelving or closed shapes like containers and dividers, giving users full autonomy of the system’s arrangement, suiting it to domestic, hospitality or workplace spaces alike.

Versatility, with the goal of blending the lines between potential use cases and contexts, is core to each of the new product lines that Mara has unveiled this year. Expanding on its core competency of the production of office furnishings, this venture into furniture that can adapt to different settings not only helps to create more comfortable and empathetic workspaces but also highly functional domestic, hospitality and institutional environments.

Photos: Nava Rapacchietta