Designed by Gaetano Pesce, the UP5_6 armchair is now a world-renowned classic of Italian design. The chair configuration has anatomical characteristics and clear anthropomorphic references; it evokes a kind of great maternal refuge, with one additional element: a sphere that serves as a pouffe attached to the body of the chair. The image of convenience and comfort echoes the figurative character of the welcoming wife or mother. Over the years, the UP5_6 armchair has become a design icon taking on several names, including "Big Mama" and "Blow Up". To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Gaetano Pesce's Up 50, B&B Italia opens its doors to new colour options. A special 50th-anniversary edition of the Up 50 is also available in beige/petrol green stripes, a nod to the original 1969 colour scheme.
Architect and designer Gaetano Pesce has designed public and private projects in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. His work expresses his guiding principle: modernism is less a style than a method of interpreting the present and alluding to the future, in which individuality is preserved and celebrated. Born in La Spezia, Italy, in 1939, Pesce studied architecture at the University of Venice and was a member of Gruppo N, one of the first groups interested in programmed art based on the Bauhaus model. He taught architecture at the Institut d'Architecture et d'Etudes Urbaines in Strasbourg, France, for 28 years, at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, at the Domus Academy in Milan, at the Polytechnic in Hong Kong, at the School of Architecture in Sao Paulo and at the Cooper Union in New York, where he has lived since 1980, having previously lived in Venice, London, Helsinki and Paris. Pesce's works are included in the permanent collections of the world's most important museums, including the MoMa in New York and San Francisco, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Vitra Museum in Germany, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Centre Pompidou and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs du Louvre in Paris. Gaetano Pesce has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Chrysler Award for Innovation and Design in 1993, the Wohnen Architect and Designer of the Year Award in 2006 and the Lawrence J. Israel Award from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in 2009.
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B&B ITALIA
B&B Italia was created with a strong industrial and technological vocation. This shook up the industry’s habits and led it to constantly challenge and refine its know-how in order to combine creative thinking and conceptual capacity.
B&B Italia has over 50 years' experience in technological product leadership on a global scale. The unique character of B&B Italia is based on its inimitable blend of creativity, innovation and industrial capacity.
B&B Italia has the ability to anticipate trends, respond to changing tastes and living requirements. B&B Italia sells a range of contemporary, high-quality furniture that represents an important chapter in the history of Italian design.