For his latest outdoor furniture collection for B&B Italia, Piero Lissoni was inspired by the concept of lightness, an idea that has fascinated him all his life. ‘As a child, I liked the idea of building planes, but they always turned out wrong, they were too heavy,’ he recalls. For this collection, the notion of lightness was key: ‘Let’s make a light product, something between a plane and a bike.’
Borea: garden furniture inspired by planes
Lissoni created an outdoor furniture collection comprising seating and tables based on an essential design principle, featuring a slim, seamless tubular aluminium frame supporting cushioned seats and enamelled lava-stone surfaces. In the spirit of lightness, the frames are minimally designed with a gently protruding foot elevating the pieces from the ground.
A complete garden furniture collection, Borea includes outdoor chairs, sofas, armchairs and tables, creating a landscape of light furniture that is stackable, versatile and suited to face the elements. The frames are available in four painted earthy colours – anthracite, sage, clay and tortora – while the seats come in a selection of monochromatic and printed outdoor upholstery fabrics.
Borea is designed to be 95 per cent sustainable, featuring both recycled and recyclable materials, and built to be disassembled (so that each part can be disposed of separately at the end of its life). Explains Lissoni: ‘When it has lived its life, it will be recycled to become something else: maybe another machine, a can, another sofa. Or maybe, a plane.’
Watch: Piero Lissoni on Borea for B&B Italia
INFORMATION
-
Wallpaper* checks in at the refreshed W Hollywood: ‘more polish and less party’The W Hollywood introduces a top-to-bottom reimagining by the Rockwell Group, capturing the genuine warmth and spirit of Southern California
-
Book a table at Row on 5 in London for the dinner party of dreamsRow on 5, the first restaurant ever to open on Savile Row, emerges as a perfectly tailored fit for fans of fan dining
-
How a bijou jewellery salon in Monaco set the jewellery trends for 2025Inside the inaugural edition of Joya, where jewellery is celebrated as miniature works of art
-
‘If I Were a Carpenter’: Ron Arad chairs revisited with AlpiRon Arad chairs are revisited with Italian wood-composite specialist Alpi, giving the ‘Big Easy’, ‘Oh Void’ and ‘Southern Hemisphere’ a new look
-
B&B Italia celebrates 15 years of outdoor furnitureFrom a woven design by Patricia Urquiola to an aeroplane-inspired collection by Piero Lissoni: we look back on exceptional B&B Italia outdoor furniture
-
Piero Lissoni's sinuous furniture for Knoll turns film starKnoll and Piero Lissoni present a new film celebrating the Italian designer's KN collection: the short film puts a playful new spin on the furniture collaboration
-
Wallpaper* Global Interiors: a snapshot of design in EuropeOur edit of furniture design from Europe includes pieces by Muller Van Severen, Piero Lissoni, Patricia Urquiola and more
-
Marble tables inspired by the spirit of reduced food wasteDesign For Soul is a series of tables designed by Piero Lissoni in collaboration with Salvatori and Massimo Bottura’s non-profit organisation Food For Soul
-
Tokyo story: our series of illustrated interiors is blossoming -
House warming: inside Avenue Road’s new furniture concept space -
The long game: B&B Italia’s Giorgio Busnelli dreams big for the future
