atelier LAVIT's ATEM sofa uses stainless steel mesh highlighting transparency

‘I’m an architect but I do some design as well,’ says paris-based marco lavit, founder of atelier LAVIT. deriving his work from the dialogue with artisans and their savior-faire—especially made in italy—lavit enjoys working with just one material and allowing it to challenge his processes and creations. and this is the case in ATEM modular sofa, a 3.20 long stainless steel seating object.

marco lavit, founder of atelier LAVIT showed the ATEM modular sofa at maison et objet in paris

the ATEM modular sofa by atelier LAVIT is a tribute to transparency. made with stainless steel, leather and mahogany wood, each material is associated with a compositional element suggested by its features. the seat, featuring a stainless steel mesh, discovers the skeleton of the object while allowing complete views of what’s behind or in front of it.

the atelier LAVIT ATEM sofa is made with stainless steel, leather and mahogany wood

‘the challenge was to play with stainless steel, a material that is elegant and classic but at the same time for outdoors – something that is not so common,’ said marco lavit to designboom in paris during maison et objet. ‘I wanted to make a full steel sofa, driving me to figure out how not to make it comfortable and not deadly hard. the result is a textile mesh, complete with all its transparencies.’

a stainless steel mesh serves as the seat of the sofa

the rest of the structure is made in mahogany wood and stainless steel tubes

tube-shaped leather cushions add softness to the whole design

the sofa is a tribute to transparency

details of atelier LAVIT ATEM modular sofa

each material is associated with a compositional element suggested by its features