Cassina

About Cassina

The “Amedeo Cassina” company was created by the brothers Cesare and Umberto Cassina in 1927 in Meda, Brianza, Italy. After the war, Cassina continued to expand in size and fame, with products which covered a broad range of furniture including: chairs, armchairs, tables, sofas and beds.

During the 50’s the company worked side by side with important architects and designers with differing backgrounds to encourage fresh designs.

Cassina’s identity lies in an innovative fusion that closely links technological skill with traditional craftsmanship. True to this identity, the company preserves its traditional passion for carpentry for which it is known worldwide and that is still the hub around which its designs are centred.

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 LC1, LC2, and LC3 armchairs, and the LC4 chaise longue. 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.

Today, the Cassina offering is organised as three principal groups of designer, representing some of the biggest names past and present in the design world:

Il Maestri (The Masters): Franco Albini, Erik Gunnar Asplund, Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marco Zanusso

Il Contemporanei (The Contemporaries): Mario Bellini, Piero de Martini, Paolo Deganello, Rodolfo Dordoni, Gianfranco Frattini, Konstantin Grcic, Zaha Hadid, Patrick Jouin, Markus Jehs and Juergen Laub, Toshiyuki Kita, Pierro Lissoni, Vico Magistretti, Jean-Marie Massaud, Gaetano Pesce, Gio Ponti, Philippe Starck, Theodore Waddell, Hannes Wettstein, Luca Nichetto, Patrick Norguett, Jean Nouvell, Jaime Hayon, Michele de Lucchi, Patricia Urquiola, Ora Ito, Ron Gilad, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Michael Anastassiades

The Simon Collezioni: Marcel Breuer, Studio Simon, Meret Oppenheim, Man Ray, Carlo Scarpa, Tobia Scarpa, Kazuhide Takahama