Baxter Cinema | The new 2024 collection displayed in the Largo Augusto showroom
During the MDW2024 Baxter Made in Italy chose to present its new 2024 Collection at the Salvioni Milano Baxter Cinema showroom, the Milanese flagship store whose atmospheres live in strong synergy with the style of the brand.
This new Indoor collection manifests itself in a complex universe of references and quotes from the masters of design and architecture, from past eras and stylistic values which, although nostalgic, also find expression in the most contemporary taste.
With a decidedly seventies character, the new pieces by South Tyrolean designer Hannes Peer, new member of the Baxter family, give a worldly and sophisticated imprinting to the collection.
The modular AURA sofa is inspired by the conversation pits of that decade and, according to the designer, “echoes the splendour of John Lautner’s Los Angeles mansions: from the Sheats-Goldstein Residence to the Garcia House”. It consists of a polished aluminium or rhubarb lacquered base – a guiding colour for Baxter’s 2024 colours – on which large, structured cushions rest.
The PILLOW seat is an upholstered volume supported by a high-tech metal scaffolding that harks back to the architecture of Piano and Rogers’ Centre Pompidou. According to Peer, “the four padded flaps open gracefully, like the blossoming petals of a flower, and invoke the visual resonance found in Henry Moore’s iconic sculptures”.
Designed as a parametrically rhythmic architecture, the base of the LOOM table, with its fused glass top, machined with a technique that yields imperfect surfaces, “pays homage to the fusion of material, form and function, characteristic of post-war Brazilian design, achieving aesthetic perfection. At the same time, it draws inspiration from American kinetic art, delving into visual perception and movement to capture the imagination of the viewer”.
Inspired by the conformation of an archipelago, the AEGATES low tables designed by Baxter P, the maison’s style office, are polished lacquered bevelled solids to match the coffee tables in natural poplar burl.
Roberto Lazzeroni introduces two new chairs with a large leg section. STIG is an ironic project: “I imagine it upholstered in teddy bear plush, inside a Danish space, with snow outside, in front of a blazing fireplace, or upholstered in leather in the colonial colour and coffee-coloured legs, inside a riad in Marrakech”, while for OLAF “the inspiration comes from Jean Royere and the ingenuous irony of his furniture, dating from the 1950s/60s”. It is natural to combine them with the ISAMU dining table, also by Lazzeroni, presented with new stone finishes.
Again using stone, Christophe Delcourt designed the LANA family of low tables and consoles – where the blades of the base interlock with the top in a constructivist-inspired geometric composition – and extended the range of the JULIETTE modular sofa with new rounded modules.
After the SO FAR and SO GOOD seats, already in the catalogue, Studiopepe works in continuity by adding the SO SOFT collection – consisting of a bed, dormeuse and pouf – where the soft, enveloping shapes of the upholstery are held like an embrace by the polished chrome or hand-brushed burnished metal frame. The SO FAR dining chair, with its Bauhaus-inspired tubular cantilever frame, offers a leather upholstered shell with contemporary comfort.
After the bestselling modular sofa Miami Soft, Paola Navone integrates the linear version MIAMI BEACH and designs the ORTIGIA armchair, which is as wide as a dormeuse and embellished with a free-pattern capitonné finish.
With WEEKEND, Federico Peri works on the valet stand typology, constructing a multifunctional object that is both a full-length mirror and a small wardrobe/pocket emptier: an intelligent piece of furniture enhanced by elegant Baxter leather finishes, ideal both for the home and for a luxury hotel. The same vocation applies to the large FLUID mirrors, which are precious for their delicately organic shape and frame finished in chocolate-coloured leather, while at the same time functioning as formidable amplifiers of space.
Continuing his reflection on the multifunctional project, Federico Peri presents BLEND: a storage unit designed in different sizes that presents itself as a leather-covered volume integrated by an open bookcase in metal, where “the shelves within it make it suitable to function as a wardrobe, as well as a bar cabinet”.
Completing the range of storage units is the HIVE cabinet by Pietro Russo – inspired by beehives for its formal complexity and by the antique Wunderkammers for its game of mirrors – and the DUNE bookcase in stainless steel sheet by Draga & Aurel, which takes its inspiration from 1970s pop art to arrive at a glamorous and luxurious universe.
Between novelties and cornerstones of the past, the collection is enriched with new and unpredictable color combinations, a triumph of hot and cold which when combined offer a new universe of suggestion and wonder. The result is a sophisticated, almost noir environment, where the visitor expects at any moment to hear a jazz tune resounding among clouds of tobacco and clinking of glasses.
