Edra

Edra is a Tuscan company famous for seating that looks like sculpture: armchairs made of woven rope, sofas that transform, small armchairs shaped like flowers. Behind the spectacular look, however, lies a very practical obsession: comfort, studied with materials and mechanisms invented in-house.

Origins

The company was founded in 1987 in Perignano, near Pisa, by Monica and Valerio Mazzei, and is still based there. For many years its art direction was entrusted to the Florentine designer Massimo Morozzi, one of the protagonists of Radical design with the Archizoom group. From the start Edra focused on a few models, made by hand with great care, and on designers with whom to build long collaborations.

Flowers and ropes

One of the first designers was the Japanese Masanori Umeda, who had been part of Memphis: his flower-shaped seats, such as the Getsuen armchair and the Rose Chair, became a symbol of the company. Even more famous are the designs of the Brazilian brothers Humberto and Fernando Campana: the Vermelha armchair, a mass of red rope knotted by hand over a metal frame; the Favela, made of wooden slats nailed together like the shacks of São Paulo's favelas; the Boa sofa, a long serpent of woven velvet; and the Anemone armchair.

Binfaré's comfort

Edra's other great designer is Francesco Binfaré, who designed sofas such as Flap, whose backs and arms rise and fall into different positions, and On the Rocks, a composition of soft blocks like stones. For its seating Edra has developed its own technologies, such as the Smart Cushion, which can be shaped at will and keeps its form, and Gellyfoam, a foam that is soft and supportive at the same time, invented and produced in-house.

Edra today

Today Edra still manufactures in Perignano, where every piece is made by hand, from prototype to finished product. Its seating is on show in several museums and furnishes homes, hotels and public spaces all over the world.

Sources

• Edra – Il valore dei nostri modelli
• Wikipedia – Campana brothers (en)