B&B Italia awake the past with updated icons of furniture design

Certain design icons occupy a league above the rest. They bring gravitas to any type of interior – they startle; they tempt; they endlessly perform. A worthy investment for any space, an icon in this league offers confidence, character and timeless appeal. That’s why this year, B&B Italia is celebrating a series of important re-editions of historical icons that honour their original mould-breaking designs. Yet it is reassuring for designers to know that B&B Italia’s meticulous re-edition process has seen these pieces carefully reconsidered and evolved to meet today’s requirements of adaptability and sustainability – ensuring that each icon can truly live forever.

Take Le Bambole, the sofa system designed by Mario Bellini, which reached its 50th anniversary this year in 2022. Its playful, rounded form captured the spirit of the 1970s and its plush upholstery pushed the technical limits of its time. Fifty years later it effortlessly endures with its bold presence and ability to elevate any space. B&B Italia’s re-edition preserves all these defining qualities, yet brings it into the present with improvements in comfort and sustainability, with the latest technical design and materials such as recycled polyethylene and recycled PET.

Another anniversary to be celebrated is the tenth birthday of the Tobi-Ishi table, designed by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby. Drawing from medieval Italian architecture and the flying stones of Japanese gardens, its sculptural form commands attention wherever it's placed. This year, B&B Italia crafted a new edition made in white Carrara and green Alpi marble, and made with the same sophisticated manual technique. Considering different scales of space, the offering has been expanded with new sizes – such as a majestic dining table for ten. These are available in novel finishes such as a honey-coloured elm wood, matt white Carrara marble and glossy Marquinia black marble. Each evolution carefully reads the identity of the original Tobi-Ishi table, and only extends its iconic appeal.

B&B Italia describes the Camaleonda modular sofa designed by Bellini as an ‘evergreen iconic vintage’. It first launched in 1970, and was re-introduced in 2020, using the original cutting pattern which defines its character as an ‘architectural element’ capable of transforming space. Found in global design museums and on film sets, loved by design aficionados, antique dealers and interior decorators, it was very important to stay true to its historic spirit. Yet today, the Camaleonda offers new flexibility in that the seat, backrest and armrest modules can be unhooked and recombined in unlimited combinations. Plus, its structure of wooden and recycled or recyclable materials can also be easily disassembled for recycling.

An enduring best-seller with the ability to command attention and start conversations inside any room is the SERIE UP seat collection designed by Gaetano Pesce in 1969. The fascination with its anthropomorphic form and innovative design has never ceased – this year it won the XXVII Compasso d’Oro ADI, Product Career Award 2022, a significant industrial design award. B&B Italia has continued over the years to invest in its technical design, whilst preserving its integrity. In 2019, on its 50th anniversary, the UP5_6 re-edition was specifically adapted to increase its production capacity making this object of desire more available for designers and clients to source.

These icons aren’t going out of style any time soon. They are products that disrupted history, and disrupted the design process itself, creating a ripple effect of objects and moods around them, and setting off social waves in space – changing how people move through and interact with space itself. B&B Italia reveres this power by continuing to invest in the contemporary evolution of these pieces, allowing their timeless designs to live on as functional objects that captivate, energise and delight.

© Architonic