STIRring Conversations: Discovering sophisticated lightness with Piero Lissoni

“In the end everything is possible. But we need to be a bit more gentle, educated, and funny. We need to think thoughts like a child, with a kind of sophisticated lightness.“
– Piero Lissoni

Italian architect and designer Piero Lissoni, who is known for his acerbic wit, candour, and humility, sits with Amit Gupta (Founder and Editor-in-chief, STIR) for an interesting conversation traversing the former’s collaboration with Knoll for Salone del Mobile 2022. The two, seated on Lissoni’s exquisitely crafted Panoramic sofa, discuss how the design maestro and the iconic modern furnishings brand is innovating the future of our homes and workspaces, with new collections that harmonise with classics conceived by masters such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, and Florence Knoll. Lissoni, the head of his Milan and New York-based studio Lissoni & Partners, as well as a creative director for several reputed modern and contemporary design brands, including Alpi, B&B Italia, Boffi, Living Divani, Lema, Lualdi, Porro, and Sanlorenzo, presented the Panoramic and Matic collection for Knoll during the Milan Design Week.

Lissoni describes the collaboration between his company and Knoll as a ‘gentle marriage’. Speaking of his approach to realising products for a brand which has remained true to the Bauhaus design philosophy for over 80 years, he says, “Knoll is an icon: an icon of collections, of historic thoughts, and approach. I am a young designer. When I work on something for Knoll, I start by staying in touch with these values and at the same time, staying detached.”

Piero Lissoni’s long-term collaboration with Knoll that resulted in this year’s collection for showcase at the Italian furniture fair is said to conserve the balance of modernity and tradition, always in relation to the brand’s exceptional heritage. The genesis of Lissoni’s Panoramic and Matic collections which include the Panoramic multifunctional sofa, the Panoramic Coffee Table, Matic Cargo, and the Matic Table, is defined as presences in the same environment. “The Panoramic Sofa,” the architect relays in an Instagram post, “is fluid, welcoming and marked by asymmetry, a being that strolls silently on four legs, while the others are extremely architectural, marked by purity and exactitude, for true lovers of precision and rigor.” The Panoramic sofa features three removable and re-adjustable backrests that makes it easily customisable according to varied preferences. Matic works, on the other hand, is all about clean volumes and reduced thicknesses. It brings together credenzas, available with and without feet, and flexible floor-standing storage units. He continues, “Identities that are different and venturous while leaning to elegance, […]These pieces are wholly consistent with a catalogue such as Knoll’s, where space is a sort of vertical/horizontal city, a complex and well-ordered organism, able to incorporate diverse elements.”

The pavilion where the collections were displayed showcased the innovative soul of Knoll designs and celebrates the brand's past and future. The idea of the space take strong cues from the rigorous minimalism of Marcel Breuer’s design of the Whitney Museum of American Art (now MET Breuer), especially in the use of a double grid ceiling that replicate the modular suspended ceiling of the museum.

When asked what’s next for Piero Lissoni, the 66-year-old design pioneer was quick to answer. “I don’t know. Tomorrow morning I shall discover,” he says with a smile. To him, the energy of the fair mattered more than the new collections, ideas and innovations that were on display. “Walking through Milano and the fair, he adds, “everything is so full of energy. In the end it doesn’t matter if we show something intelligent or not, energy is the most special topic inside this special week in Milan.”

STIR takes you on a Milanese sojourn! Experience Salone del Mobile and all the design districts - 5vie, Brera, Fuorisalone, Isola, Zona Tortona, and Durini - with us. STIR’s coverage of Milan Design Week 2022, Meanwhile in Milan showcased the best exhibits, moods, studios, events, and folks to look out for. We also had our very own STIR press booth at Salone del Mobile - Hall 5/7 S.14, Fiera Milano RHO.