Cassina S.p.A.

Cassina S.p. A. is an Italian manufacturing company specialised in the creation of high end designer furniture [ [http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/product-compint-0000775011-page.html Goliath Business Knowledge on demand] ] .

The Origins

The "Amedeo Cassina" company was created by the brothers Cesare and Umberto Cassina in 1927 in Meda, Brianza, (Northern Italy). After the war, Cassina continued to expand in size and fame, thanks to the excellence and quality of its products which covered a broad range of furniture including: chairs, armchairs, tables, sofas and beds.

The company’s transformation was bolstered further by a large number of commissions for cruise ships, top end hotels and restaurants which accounted for a great part of the company’s activity right up to the mid-sixties and beyond.

In 1964 the “Cassina I Maestri” (Cassina Masters) Collection was born, with the acquisition of the rights to products designed by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, the most important names of 20th century design. These included the iconic LC1, LC2 and LC3 armchairs and the LC4 chaise longue. Significantly, Le Corbusier himself granted the license to Cassina. Today Cassina is the exclusive worldwide licensee of the Le Corbusier designs.

The "Cassina I Maestri" collection was widened in 1968 with the acquisition from Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin of reproduction rights to some of the Bauhaus objects and in 1971 the designs of Gerrit Rietveld, Frank Lloyd Wright, and of Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1972. The Masters collection continued with the re-issue in 1983 of furniture by Erik Gunner Asplund, the acquisition from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation of rights of reproduction (1986) of furniture by Frank Lloyd Wright, including the Barrel chair (1937), and, finally, in 2004 furniture by Charlotte Perriand.

The 1972, the New York MoMA exhibition, "Italy: the New Domestic Landscape" curated by Emilio Ambasz and sponsored by Cassina, Cassina Centre, C&B Italia, Citroën and Pirelli Industries further served to reinforce Cassina’s reputation as a leader for design innovation.

The Present

Cassina’s continuous pursuit of design innovation and quality remains as true today through the work of some of the world’s leading designers of the 20th and 21st century, “I Contemporanei” (Modern Masters) including: Mario Bellini, Gio Ponti, Vico Magistretti, Toshiyuki Kita, Gaetano Pesce, Theodore Waddell, Hannes Wettstein, Philippe Starck, Jean Marie Massaud, Piero Lissoni, and others.

Today Cassina has flagship stores in Milan, Paris, New York and Tokyo. Cassina products are distributed internationally exclusively through Authorised Cassina Dealer Partners.

Cassina furniture products are designed for both domestic & contract usage. Contract applications include: luxury hotels & restaurants, public spaces, office meeting and break out areas.

References

External links

* [http://www.cassina.com/ Cassina S.p.A.] home page "(Adobe Flash)"
* [http://www.cassinausa.com/index.html Cassina USA]
* [http://www.nemo.cassina.it/ Cassina Nemo Luce]
* [http://www.aliasdesign.it/ Alias S.p.A]
* [http://www.simonjoy.com/ Simon Joy & Associates Ltd]
* [http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=177796&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=795126 Design Within Reach to Offer Le Corbusier Designs From Cassina]
* [http://www.homeportfolio.com/BBI/beta20/manufacturers/cassi/about/content.html Cassina: A Profile in Design Excellence]