Unveiled at Milan Salone in April 2012, Solo is a furniture group including a stacking chair, cafe table, and stool. One of the first products by Mattiazzi, a new Italian brand created by Italian woodworkers who have manufactured furniture for other companies for more than 30 years, Solo is the design of Munich-based Studio Nitzan Cohen. While Solo is a simple design, it nonetheless displays Mattiazzi’s considerable woodworking craft.

Solo. Designed by Studio Nitzan Cohen. Manufactured by Mattiazzi.

Simple Dining with Robust and Refined Woodcraft

Available in natural and thermo-treated oiled ash, waxed natural oak, and aniline stained ash in various colors, the Solo group offers a cost-efficient alternative for cafes and restaurants. Mattiazzi explains the appeal of Solo: “More of a character, a bit hard but very round, very simple but also intricate, practical and pragmatic but offering a great deal. It’s a café chair, a bar stool that makes no fuss about what it does, a character that says, plainly: ‘Have a seat,’ and one happily complies.” With its perfectly rounded circles and arcs and its light airiness, Solo gives diners a visual feast.

To add textural appeal to Solo, Mattiazzi included an unexpected detail: the chair and stool feature a leather inlay that’s integrated into the surface of the seat, offering “a wider variety of colour-matching possibilities, as well as the great tactile qualities of natural leather.” This is one of many details illustrating Mattiazzi’s decades of woodworking experience. In fact, the design by Studio Nitzan Cohen incorporates “as much as possible from the Mattiazzi production process.”

About the Manufacturer: Since 1978 Mattiazzi has been a go-to manufacturer for other brands, known for making technically challenging products requiring expert woodworking know-how. Now the Italian company has started its own line of furniture with the help of Munich-based Studio Nitzan Cohen, which created designs that “push and exploit the potential of Mattiazzi’s craft.” The Mattiazzi brand is synonymous with woodworking: the company operates all their own factories with a network of wood shops each specializing in a particular process such as milling or lacquering.