Ettore Sottsass "Westside" Living Room Set for Knoll International, 1982

Design
1982

Manufacture
1980-1989

Location
Lonigo, IT

Ettore Sottsass "Westside" living room set for Knoll International, foam and fabric, Italy, 1982.

The "Westside" collection is an iconic project created by Ettore Sottsass in 1982, two years after the founding of Memphis Collective. Inspired by his lifelong love of Viennese Biedermeier chairs, characterized by plush seats with clean lines and minimal adornment, the collection consists of geometric sofas and lounge chairs in color-blocked upholsteries. The sofa and the armchairs are made of polyurethane foam upholstered with colorful pop fabric, with four rectangular metal feet. In spite of his iconoclasm, Sottsass had a deep appreciation of ancient art and architecture - particularly Sumerian, Assyrian, and Chinese - resulting in the decision to shoot the collection against the backdrop of the Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt. The primary colours and simple form, recalling toy bricks, associate this set with furniture that Ettore Sottsass designed for the firm Memphis in the early 1980s, introducing garish colours and non-traditional shapes which defined 1980s post-modern design.