Talking an international design language: Inoda+Sveje x Minotti

Brand story by Harriet Thorpe
Meda (MB), Italy
27.09.22

Minotti's collaboration with Japanese/Scandinavian design duo Inoda+Sveje gives its 2022 Collection a distinctive style, combining the traditional aesthetics and art of wood sanding, typical of the designers' countries of origin.

Minotti collaborators Inoda+Sveje introduce their designs, inspirations and techniques

The Minotti 2022 Collection gains its Japanese/Scandinavian twist from new collaborators Inoda+Sveje. The design duo comprising Kyoko Inoda (born in Japan) and Nils Sveje (born in Denmark) founded their studio in Copenhagen in 2000, and are now based in Milan. Minotti was drawn to their sensitive forms made with traditional wood sanding and cabinet-making techniques from Japan and Scandinavia, and was curious to combine this with its own historic Italian manufacturing and upholstery expertise, contemporary spirit and mid-century flavour.

Dining and socialising in comfort: the Sendai sofa and armchairs (above) and Yoko armchair (below) in warm natural tones

The result is a synergy of design histories, combining simplicity with highly crafted details, and contemporary identities, responsive to evolving lifestyle trends. Take the well-proportioned, compact Sendai family (a small sofa, a lounge armchair, an armchair and dining and lounge little armchairs); the pieces have slender wooden legs supporting elegant upholstered bodies and some seats are available in a sophisticated 360° swivel version, opening up multiple possibilities for hybrid dining and socialising around a lounge table.

Elegant and ergonomic wood-working – seen here in the Lars sofa and Yoko Cord Outdoor armchair and ottoman bench

Or take the naturalistic Yoko and Lars series, where the smooth lines and rounded corners of traditional wood-working techniques translate into modern ergonomic forms. The softly asymmetrical Lars sofa rests on five wooden legs refined with joinery detailing. While the sinuous Yoko – an armchair, a dining armchair and an ottoman bench – features decorative, interlocking structural joints. The Yoko seat then evolves into the Yoko Cord Outdoor, featuring an armchair, dining little armchair and ottoman bench, in which natural teak frames are strung with polyester cord and upholstered with fabrics from the 2022 Textile Outdoor Collection.