Diggin’ the Scene
The best part of the Bible is when God sits back after six days of hard creation and looks down on the scene. On nothing in particular. The stage is set, the show has yet to begin, and the creator eases back and chills. Diggin’ the scene with a gangsta lean, sang William DeVaughn. If you had one day off in all eternity you’d do the same.
Modern seating has explored all possibilities of moving legs, butts and backs up and down, in and out. Yet furniture design has been far less concerned with exploring new ways of looking and being seen through seating. At the Camper FoodBall in Barcelona you ate on a tiered stand, looking out at passers-by in the street, and they gawked back at informal diners formally framed by the picture windows. Similar steps showed off the brand’s wares at Bread and Butter 2005, only the arrangement looked inward, like an arena. A clever juxtaposition: visitors longing to get off tired feet lounged on the same steps used to display footwear, turning those seated into display items too.
Guixé’s Scala Sofa is for moments like this, three cushioned steps suggesting a fragment of a grandstand or section of an escalinata, like the Spanish Steps in Rome. Sit, stretch, lay back; dig the scene and be seen. Only the Scala, with its eminently public language, is conceived for domestic space, the home. Making it a novel and eminently social contribution not only to the private body but also to the private gaze.
Jeffrey Swartz