Back around the turn of the 19th century, one of the most common cafe chairs in the world featured bent wood and caning at the seat. This chair caning was a narrow hexagonal pattern that almost mimicked the delicacy of Moorish windows. I have a sof spot for this chair because my parents owned several which we loved to use at the dinner table. Fast Forward one hundred years, and we have Patricia Urquiola taking this concept to the extreme for B&B Italia’s outdoor collection. Her seat collection, entitled Canasta, (the Spanish word for baskets) evokes the feeling of the old cafe chair but she pumps up the pattern to a macro scale so that you can really get the feeling for the exceptional pattern.

designer: patricia urquiola
producer: b&b italia
materials: polyethylene and aluminum
period: 2007