The name chosen for designer Flavio Scalvo’s contribution to convertible furniture sounds so much better in the original Italian: “Sedia Tira E Spengi” has a tinge of the poetic, a certain onomatopoeic quality that does justice to the piece’s fickle personality, its dual penchant for broad and slim, for black and white. Not that “Pull and Push” is bad either. That translation of Scalvo’s changeable chair possesses an alliterative quality that suggests all the fun you’ll have pulling and pushing Pull and Push from storage mode to sitting mode and back again.

Pull and Push Chair. Designed by Flavio Scalzo for DiciannoveDieciDesign.

A Dueling Aesthetic for A Dual-Function Chair

The exact mechanics at play with Scalvo’s Pull and Push are something of a mystery, but close examination of Scalvo’s product video reveals a seamless slide of one of Pull and Push’s components into the other. In its storage mode, the piece appears as a sort of iconic interpretation of scaled-down “chairness,” looking more like an ancient totem or piece of African art than a functional chair, but a simple longitudinal glide demonstrates how easily the actual seat of the actual chair emerges from within. Fittingly, Pull and Push’s pragmatic parts (seat, back, and metal legs) are each light-toned, thus providing an interesting contrast with its dark outer shell.

Scalvo describes Pull and Push as a stand-alone piece with a distinctive aesthetic. That is, indeed, the case, as the piece’s contrasting tones lend it special intrigue, whether “opened” or “closed.” Yet Pull and Push is also eminently functional—its range of uses extend from chair with accompanying side table to charming display piece to portable pinch-hitter that gives your space some extra versatility.

Via Yanko.

About the Manufacturer: DiciannoveDieciDesign has some good old-fashioned Italian aspirations. That is to say, this manufacturer of industrial product (the range runs from chair to console/bookshelf to wall and pendant lighting) aims to restore some meaning to the identifier of “made in Italy.” DDD resists the imperatives of “globalization” and “market demand” to create pieces that could not have been made anywhere but Italy. DDD’s product is future forward—created with an eye for synthesizing a unique contemporary aesthetic with the new language of technology: “DDD gives different uses and meanings to industrial designed furniture, helping the power of communication to persist through time.”