From its 1927 Meda origins to Gio Ponti’s Superleggera and later editions of modernist designs, Cassina’s history brings together joinery, industrial production and authored furniture.
Meda and the first company
Cassina’s history begins in Meda in 1927, when Cesare and Umberto Cassina established Amedeo Cassina. The company first made furniture such as coffee tables, with designs created in-house; in 1935 its name became Figli di Amedeo Cassina. That early cabinetmaking business is the starting point for a much longer story of design partnerships.1
Gio Ponti and the Superleggera
Cassina’s postwar relationship with Gio Ponti brought design research together with the skill of its joiners. The 699 Superleggera entered production in 1957. Its ash structure and unusually slender, triangular-section legs make the construction part of the design. The legs measure just 18 millimetres across, a narrow section that makes the pursuit of lightness visible.1,2
A modernist collection, made later
The LC4, or Chaise longue à réglage continu, brings together a design conceived by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand with Cassina’s later production history. The trio designed it in 1928; it appeared at the Paris Salon d’Automne the following year. Cassina began producing their 1920s furniture in 1965, turning historical designs into a continuing collection.1,3
The essentials
- Founded
- 1927, Meda
- Headquarters
- Meda, Italy
- Official site
- cassina.com
