Industrial Facility's stackable Tronco chair for Mattiazzi is designed for church congregations
Milan 2016: London studio Industrial Facility has designed a solid wood "chair for church" for Italian furniture brand Mattiazzi (+ slideshow).
The Tronco furniture is made from planks of ash joined together, with chair backs formed from three pieces placed at angles around a square cut-out.
Legs are constructed from slender dowels, and the studio – led by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin – has also designed a metal trolley that can be used to store and transport the chairs.
"We thought it's a good time to look at a new level of maturity for the company, where they could potentially produce a chair that could be sold in numbers," said the studio, which also created the Branca line of wooden furniture for Mattiazzi.
"The idea was to try and do a chair for church, where you have a congregation, and where there are many people," they added.
The studio chose wood as an alternative to steel, which is more commonly used for stackable chairs.
"What happens is when you see them in numbers they look like squiggles, lots of lines," the pair said. "We tried to create this kind of surface architecture in itself."
The Tronco chair is accompanied by a table, which features angled corners and a chamfered edge that allows it to be easily joined with others. Each piece of furniture is available in a natural finish, or stained in red, dark brown or black.
Mattiazzi launched the range at the Salone del Mobile furniture fair during this year's Milan design week, which took place from 12 to 17 April 2016. Also at the event, Industrial Facility unveiled a range of desks and tables based on park benches for American furniture company Emeco.
Other recent designs by the studio include a floor lamp based on street lights, and a collection of pendant lights created for Wästberg.