Sofas, Casa Modernista

Designer: Nipa Doshi & Jonathan Levien

This Modernista collection – despite its roots and references lying within Modernism – distinguishes itself with its ambitious attempt to integrate the figurative component, representative of Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien’s work, to the linear rationality of the rectangle geometric shape. The result, from a formal innovation point of view, is an achievement. The two designers contrast the classical composition, from the meticulous attention to the surface and material performance to the highlighting of a few meaningful traits: the central button denies and simultaneously reworks the capitonné padding bourgeois charm, while the base, revised through colour choice and the use of steel, tempers the aesthetics of industrial manufacturing. With Casa Modernista – a subtle homage to Gregori Warchavchik, Russian-Ukrainian architect responsible for promoting modern architecture in the 1920’s Brazil – the formal precision and objective sobriety of the prior models is tempered, opening itself to relaxation and spontaneity.