The best things come in threes: B&B Italia Outdoor

Brand story by Bethan Ryder
Novedrate (CO), Italy
25.03.20

In collaboration with three international design masters, B&B Italia has come up with three distinct and compelling new lines of outdoor furniture. The only thing left to do is choose one.

The B&B Italia Outdoor 2020 Collection takes the inside out with fully customisable furniture that is as elegant, stylish and varied as indoor upholstery. From Antonio Citterio’s Hybrid sofas to the colourful Tramae ottomans by unPizzo

The great modernist architects espoused an organic architecture that blurred the boundaries between indoor and out. Founding father Frank Lloyd Wright famously declared: ‘No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together, each the happier for the other.’ This philosophy has been realised, expressed in modernist properties embedded in coastal, urban and rural surroundings. Open-plan homes, or hotels with vast glazing that frames panoramas and slides open, granting seamless transitions between interior and exterior – whether terrace, beach, garden or pool.

Soft, rounded bamboo-like elements define Naoto Fukasawa’s Ayana unpainted teak framed furniture for the B&B Italia Outdoor 2020 Collection. Its pared-back simplicity is thanks to an innovative construction of wooden pins forming invisible joints

But what about moving in the opposite direction and bringing the inside out? Pioneering brands are innovating with fabrics and technology, evolving the modernist dream of effortless indoor-outdoor living by creating durable, all-weather furniture that is comparable in style, comfort and materiality to indoor upholstery. B&B Italia’s Outdoor 2020 Collection is a case in point, providing sophisticated myriad possibilities, with a trio of furnishings designed to truly enable the seamless blending of interior rooms with terraces, gardens, decks and pools.

The ‘Oh, it rains!’ sofa is French design maverick Philippe Starck’s inspired solution to changeable weather conditions. When the heavens open, the generous slanted backrest conceals nifty engineering, allowing it to close down and protect the seat

Continuing B&B Italia’s legacy of astute collaborations, the brand has partnered with three masters of international design: Italian architect Antonio Citterio, French designer Philippe Starck, and Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa, resulting in three distinct solutions to alfresco living. Citterio’s modular ‘Hybrid’ seating champions the ‘outdoor room’ aesthetic with its generous, upholstery that appears to float above the ground. Starck’s ‘Oh, it rains!’ sofa and armchair are an elegant, ergonomic response to the realities of changeable weather conditions. Meanwhile, Fukasawa’s Ayana collection is a family of furniture, which, with its Far East meets minimal Northern European aesthetic of natural teak frames composed from rounded stick-like forms reminiscent of bamboo, blends nature with pared-back classic design.

The entire B&B Italia Outdoor 2020 Collection can be customised – choose from over 100 high tech waterproof polypropylene fabric – expanding the many design possibilities of inside, to out. Living en-plein-air never looked so good.