Sottsass Associati: architecture at scale, down to the chair

The studio calls itself an architectural practice first, and the scale shows. Sottsass Associati was set up in 1980 so that Ettore Sottsass could build architecture of substantial size and design for large international industries, two ambitions a movement like Memphis alone could never carry. From that platform came stores and showrooms for Esprit, exhibitions, interiors, consumer electronics for Japan and furniture of every kind. Today the practice runs from Milan and London as a network of European professionals, guided by two associates, Christopher Redfern and Ernest Mourmans, who keep the founder's philosophy in working order rather than in a museum.

On American floors La Mercanti places the studio's seating through the brands it carries: Cloud, the ICF chair of 1998 with flexible suspended surfaces on a rigid aluminum frame, and Trono, the stacking chair Segis lists under the studio's name.