Calatea armchair: Botany meets ergonomics in a reciprocal exchange of influences

Pianca Calatea by Cristina Celestino: Relax and melt into the soft embrace of a delicate and charming garden.

Botany meets ergonomics in a reciprocal exchange of influences, resulting in an appealing, comfortable volume. This is how Pianca’s Calatea armchair design was born, inspired by Calathea, a native plant of South America. Its leaves, primitive and simple elements, have been studied and incorporated into the design, which explores their oversize proportions.

Designer Cristina Celestino was fascinated by the sensorial qualities of the Calathea plant and wanted in some way to evoke them. The plant’s brilliant and exotic colours appear in the chair cover pattern, which invites you to totally relax and melt into the soft embrace of a delicate and charming garden.

A less explicit, yet equally important reference to the inspirational theme is the expressional value of alternative versions of the Calatea armchair design, offering a vast choice in cushion and frame coverings, available in the fabrics and leathers of the Pianca collection.

During the 2019 German Design Award, Calatea received a special mention for the category “Excellent product Design”. The committee referred to the armchair designed by Cristina Celestino as “extremely elegant, inviting and comfortable”. Since 1953, the German Design Award discovers and puts under the spotlight the products representing the latest trends in the design field.

Cristina Celestino

Cristina Celestino was born in 1980 in Pordenone. In 2005, after completing her course of studies in the Department of Architecture of IUAV University of Venice, she began to work with prestigious design studios, focusing on interior architecture and design. In 2009 she moved to Milan and founded the brand Attico design, to make lamps and furnishings based on painstaking research on materials and forms.

In 2012 she was selected to participate in the Salone Satellite, and after this experience her products have been shown in many international galleries and showrooms. In 2016 Cristina is awarded with the special jury prize at Salone del Mobile. Read also about Cristina Celestino’s VIP ‘Happy Room’ for Fendi.