Frida Chair
Compasso d'Oro 2011 chair: solid oak structure with a three-dimensional plywood shell.
450 × 795 × 530 mm
Source: spec sheet PDF — Frida 752 chair
2008
Italy
2.7 kg
Description
Overview
Frida 752 is a chair designed by Odo Fioravanti for Pedrali. Pedrali's page says it won the XXII ADI Compasso d'Oro (2011) for its "simple sculptural beauty" and describes it as a chair that combines beauty, avant-garde technology and love for details.
Construction
The technical sheet lists a solid oak structure combined with a three-dimensional plywood shell, with jointed wooden parts. Pedrali's page calls the result an extremely light, ergonomic and resistant chair. The available wood treatments are water-based paints with a matt (5 gloss), anti-scratch surface or lacquer with visible grain.
Specifications
- Dimensions: W 450 × D 530 × H 795 mm, seat height 450 mm
- Weight: 2.7 kg
- Tests: level L3 to EN 1728 / EN 15372 and level L2 to EN 1728 / EN 16139
- Marks on the sheet: 100% Made in Italy and Compasso d'Oro; a UL 2818 emission-limit test is also printed
Story
The first thin veneer on a solid wood structure
Pedrali's article on 20 years of its wooden furniture manufactory says that in 2008 the company explored new possibilities in wood processing with the Frida chair, designed by Odo Fioravanti, and names as its most extraordinary feature the superposition of a three-dimensional curved plywood shell on a solid wood frame. Fioravanti's studio says the chair was designed using a new veneering technique that makes complex shapes with a thin surface, and that it is the very first chair joining this kind of thin veneer with a solid wood structure. The studio credits the design to a collaboration with Gianpiero Billiani of Pedrali Lab and Lorenzo De Rosa of OFDS, and lists Chair of the Year 2008-2009 among the chair's recognitions.
Compasso d'Oro and Frida Kahlo
In 2011 Frida won the 22nd ADI Compasso d'Oro. Monica and Giuseppe Pedrali said they were extremely proud that Frida had joined the narrow circle of products that have made the history of design. From 6 to 9 October 2011, during the Milan Design Weekend, Pedrali staged a meeting between the paintings of Frida Kahlo and the chair that had won the award.
