Salone del Mobile makes for a great ‘coming out’ platform. Top designers and emerging talents have been presenting their latest products here for years. In line with this tradition, US-based, multinational furniture brand, Coalesse introduces Michael Young’s <5_MY chair and two new collections: Jean-Marie Massaud’s Massaud Conference Seating Collection and Lievore Altherr Molina’s sixfivezero_LAM & sixfivezero_CO.
With such designers in their midst, Coalesse achieves its goal of combining comfort, function and emotional satisfaction when creating artful solutions. The brand follows the ‘work has been freed’ trend, where work has been disconnected from the obligation of an office and telephone lines and can now occur anywhere. This puts their furnishings in the category they call Crossover, meaning the intersection of work and life: homes and offices, meeting rooms and social spaces, private retreats and public places.
A careful study of how people collaborate, contemplate and socialize allows Coalesse to succeed. The award-winning brand is backed by architects and designers who recommend its products to clients when ‘building’ interior spaces to please employees and enrich creative cultures.
Researching behavior allowed the company to identify the need for lightweight products, good for rearranging the space when desired. Recalling designer Michael Young’s reputation for being a sophisticated minimalist, Coalesse set out to make a piece with him that could be not only smart, but also a manufacturing marvel.
Michael Young‘s ultra-smooth <5_MY chair is made exclusively of carbon fiber, which is one of the sturdiest and lightweight materials in the design world. The carbon fiber material permits a wide selection of colors embracing personal expression and the chair weighs less than 2.3kg (5lb), though it can support up to 136kg (300lb).
The two collections sixfivezero_LAM & sixfivezero_CO by the Spanish design studio Lievore Altherr Molina (Alberto Lievore, Jeannette Altherr and Manel Molina) are another solution to the demand for light, mobile furniture. sixfivezero_LAM is a collection of wooden chairs, stools and lounge seating that includes unique upholstery and different finishing options. The collection is complemented by sixfivezero_CO, a table series of various shapes, sizes and heights. The table is made from painted or trivalent chrome and stained oak. The tables and chairs are built with the structural approach of a monocoque (a construction technique that utilizes the external skin to support some or most of the weight).=
Jean-Marie Massaud’s Portrait
The company carried on artistically with French designer Jean-Marie Massaud, who stated in a press release, “In a world in which work and life are merging, it is important for everyone to be able to express their individual identities in the workplace. There are countless ways that its enveloping shape may be specified, so that architects and designers can express their own styles in their own languages, from the most radical to the most refined, high-tech or hip.”
The collaboration led to the Maussaud Conference Seating Collection, which won the Red Dot Design Award – Product Design 2015. The collection brings luxury and comfort together in the workplace with a modern form and refined upholstery. The mid-back conference chair and low-back guest chair from the collection are available with integrated or polished aluminum and can be upholstered in a signature or duvet style.
Sustainability is at the apex of the Coalesse brand. They select environmentally responsible materials and processes and consider disposal possibilities once a product reaches the end of its life cycle. This “Design for Environment” framework they implement has them examining material composition, sources and supply, transportation, energy processes and recycling/disposal strategies.
Coalesse states that more than 80% of the product portfolio has been screened against the ANSI / BIFMA Furniture Emissions Standard (M7.1/X7.1 – 2011) and California Specification 01350 (Standard Method v1.1) and certified by SCS Global Services.
