MILAN — With his second outdoor collection with Molteni & C, Belgian architect and designer Vincent Van Duysen inched closer to perfecting the art of outdoor living. Molteni & C released its second outdoor collection under his creative direction this week.
Unlike his first Molteni & C outdoor collection — for which he reinterpreted works by the most important contemporary designers, including the late Molteni art director Luca Meda, Gio Ponti and U.K. architectural firm Foster + Partners — Van Duysen unfurled some fresh models that look to the future. The muse of the 2024 collection is the Petalo chair, characterized by its enveloping ecru polypropylene rope seating and merlot aluminum, recyclable base. Elsewhere, Van Duysen wove ceramics into the collection via the Picea, monoboloc table in anthracite (a dark coal color), merlot red and ecru.
The array includes the seating solutions Cobea and Boboli. Cobea is a chair made of teak and Boboli is a sofa-armchair that the company said “expresses the lightness and airiness of time spent in nature.”
The renowned duo, Canadian designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg of Yabu Pushelberg, who have long collaborated with the brand, contributed the Sway modular sofa system, also made with teak essence, aluminum and polypropylene ropes.
Upholstery options include fabrics from the Molteni & C Outdoor Collection that were curated by Italian fashion designer Marta Ferri, who in 2022 launched a homeware and furniture collection with Cecilia Morelli, cofounder of the Mumbai-based concept store Le Mill with Julie Leymarie.
“We remain committed to the art of living cultivated since the inception of our outdoor journey,” Van Duysen said.
In 2023, Van Duysen brought back the Palinfrasca sofa and armchair that was based on the late Molteni art director Meda’s 1994 project, inspired by a basket weave, representing a safe and intimate place.
Van Duysen founded his architect studio in 1989 and is credited with forward-looking offices and residences that span the globe from Antwerp, Belgium, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In and around the design scene, the design veteran continues to blur the lines between indoor and outdoor living with his meditative objects and interior design projects.
Van Duysen released his second indoor and outdoor furniture and interiors collection with Zara Home+ in June.
