Итальянская Poltrona Frau создала 120 кастомных сидений для нового фонда Картье в Париже

MILAN — Design lovers have another reason to visit Paris’ new Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain. Poltrona Frau, the Italian luxury furniture-maker famous for designs like the Vanity Fair and the Dezza chairs, developed and produced 120 bespoke seats for the art institution’s auditorium in close collaboration with the foundation’s designer, the studio of architect Jean Nouvel. Poltrona Frau chief executive officer Nicola Coropulis said the team sought to accommodate the function and the identity of the space. “The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is a place where artistic research, architecture and public experience come together in an extraordinary way,” he said. You May Also Like The seats themselves have been fashioned in the signature red that has been associated with the French luxury house since the first half of the 20th century. Each piece is covered in velvet and designed to adapt to the various configurations of the space: they can be folded onto themselves or disappear completely into the back wall, allowing the environment to transform according to functional needs and integrating seamlessly into the architectural identity and immersive experience conceived for the project, Poltrona Frau said in a statement. The foundation was created in 1984 by Alain Dominique Perrin, then-president of Maison Cartier, and spent 10 years in its original location in Jouy-en-Josas before moving into its Boulevard Raspail site in 1994, also designed by Nouvel. The new foundation opened in October 2025 on Place du Palais-Royal in Paris. In total, the foundation spans 70,000 square feet of exhibition space plus a bookstore, a restaurant and “La Manufacture,” a 3,200-square-foot area dedicated to education about art, open to all ages and profiles. The partnership highlights the growing potential of Poltrona Frau’s Custom Interiors unit and its leadership in developing furniture that integrates into high-profile cultural and architectural projects. Over the past century the firm has worked with design legends like Gio Ponti and Richard Meier, Sir Norman Foster and Frank Gehry to outfit some of the world’s most famous theaters and auditoriums. The unit worked with Gehry, for example, on custom seating designed for Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2003, as well as the auditorium of Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2014.