In its 33 years of existence, Debra Lehman Smith and James McLeish’s LSM practice has set a new benchmark for designing innovative and timeless buildings. For two decades, many of these have been created with UniFor, a Molteni Group company dedicated to finding contract solutions through in-depth collaborations.
For Lehman Smith, UniFor has been a true design partner rather than a client. ‘Their expertise, exactness and holistic vision of what a space should be, from the architecture down to every piece within the space, is really critical for us,’ she says. UniFor has contributed to some of LSM’s key projects, including new HQs for aerospace giant General Dynamics in Virginia and law firm Covington in Washington DC, as well as more commissions globally.
LSM and UniFor 'Andromeda' collection
Unifor and LSM's new Andromeda collection includes this curved modular sofa, pictured here at Sciliy's Teatro Andromeda, created by artist shepherd Lorenzo Reina in the 1970s
Most of these projects, Lehman Smith points out, formed the start of a new collection of furniture, to be launched by UniFor during Milan Design Week 2024, at its Herzog & de Meuron-designed Viale Pasubio showroom. Dubbed Andromeda, the collection goes back to the very essence of furniture. ‘There’s nothing extraneous, it’s elemental, simple,’ says Lehman Smith. ‘It just floats, it’s transparent, it’s classic – an expression of structures.’
A sideboard comprises a black chrome aluminium frame and bronze-mirrored glass top
The series comprises a leather-clad sofa, defined by a dramatic curve, as well as a comprehensive series of tables that range from a large executive-style dining table to smaller side tables for a variety of functions, with round tops and slender X-shaped bases. But the collection centrepiece, says Lehman Smith, is the credenza – perhaps an unlikely hero in a series of objects with standout qualities, but, she explains, it filled a gap in the market for them as they were designing their large-scale projects.
The design of the credenza was first conceived for and used within the Covington and General Dynamics projects (completed respectively in 2016 and 2019), which Lehman Smith credits as setting the foundations for the Andromeda collection. ‘There was a void for credenzas, pieces that were transparent and floated, and that really complemented the light within the space,’ she says. ‘It becomes a reflection point, one and the same with its surroundings.’
Despite its inherent simplicity, the collection expresses a strong statement, thanks to a well-defined material palette that encompasses mirror-polished extruded aluminium combined with glass, travertine and leather. ‘We wanted each architect or designer to be able to take the collection and dream of what it could do for them,’ explains Lehman Smith of the material choices. ‘Even if the material palette is quite limited, the perception is that you can put them together to create a different form. To me that is the beauty of Andromeda.’
An oval coffee table with a travertine top and mirrored base
Before its Milan debut, the collection was taken to Sicily’s Teatro Andromeda, to create a series of otherworldly images that frame the series and elevate its simplicity. Created in the 1970s by shepherd-turned-sculptor Lorenzo Reina, the open-air theatre features majestic views over the Agrigento Valley and an aura of sacrality. For Lehman Smith, the location symbolises both LSM’s and UniFor’s support of art and culture, but it also complements the designs as it’s ‘a space out of time. It’s not the past or the future, it’s the present, it’s of the moment. Like this collection: it’s not defined by a moment of time, but by all of time.’
Andromeda by LSM for Unifor is unveiled during Milan Design Week 2024, 16-21 April 2024
Unifor
Viale Pasubio, 15
20154 Milano
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