Superleggera chairs around a glass dining table
Photography by Valentina Sommariva.

A Look Back at Gio Ponti’s Superleggera Chair

Gio Ponti regarded his Superleggera for Cassina as one of his three major masterpieces. (The other two are his Pirelli Tower in Milan and Taranto’s Concattedrale Gran Madre di Dio.) Named after the Italian term for super-lightweight (clocking in at just 3.7 pounds), the ash and rattan chair represented an exciting take on the Ligurian region’s traditional chiavarina. Ponti’s first iteration, the Leggera of 1951, distilled into an even more elemental form in 1957 with the lithe Superleggera, which achieves its stability from struts slotted together. To test the design, it was thrown from the fourth floor of an apartment building; the chair bounced on the street but did not break. Ponti was satisfied and the rest, as they say, is history: Superleggera has been produced continually ever since.

a vintage image of a car with Superleggera chairs stacked on top of it
Image courtesy of Cassina Historical Archive.
Superleggera. Image courtesy of Cassina Historical Archive.
Superleggera. Image courtesy of Cassina Historical Archive.
a hand drawn image reaching out to words that make the shape of a chair
stacks of Superleggera chairs
Image courtesy of Cassina Historical Archive.
Superleggera chairs around a glass dining table
Photography by Valentina Sommariva.

read more

  • DesignWire

    Denver Art Museum Celebrates Gio Ponti for 50th Anniversary

    The Denver Art Museum’s upcoming anniversary honoring Gio Ponti has kicked off a campus-wide transformation by Machado Silvetti and Fentress Architects.

  • Access to the house via stairs and a pathway from the shore.

    Projects

    At Home With Cini Boeri in Sardinia

    Not so long ago, in Italy, women architects were few and far between. In fact, when Cini Boeri graduated from the Politecnico di Milano in 1951, she was one of only three.

  • Blue, yellow, green, and red versions of the Tote chair by Davis Furniture

    Products

    This Chair by Sebastian Herkner is Made to Move

    German designer Sebastian Herkner ingeniously melded the mobility of a task chair with the comfort of a lounge chair. Light in scale and with an attached leather handle on the back—not to mention a glide or caster base…

recent stories