2023 marks a special anniversary for Pedrali: 10 years of Babila collection designed by Odo Fioravanti.
This collection moves with great agility between tradition and innovation, its distinctive strength lies in simplicity and directness, reminiscent of a timeless shape. The choice of the name stems from the designer's desire to pay homage to the city of Milan: “I am not from Milan, but Milan welcomed me into its arms” – he explains, “hence the name Babila, one of the saints of the Church of Milan, chosen to pay homage to the city that gave me my big break”.
And lucky can also be defined the collection itself that, born in 2013 with the chair version entirely made of wood, year after year has expanded, adding armchairs and stools in different materials and finishes.
“A family of chairs, inspired by my reasoning on the role of objects as a bridge between the human body and the artifice of industrial production. The result of these musings brought me to devise objects with alternating curved and straight lines. Curved lines that follow the human body and straight lines that represent the artifice of human thought” – Odo Fioravanti says.
The chair is characterized by a shell made of plywood with variable thickness, technopolymer or upholstered in fabric or simil-leather and it is available with legs in solid ash wood, steel tube or with steel rod sled frame. The armchair has a polypropylene shell instead, that may be upholstered in fabric or simil-leather, it is combined with legs in solid ash wood, steel tube, with steel rod sled frame or central base.
The Babila ash wood barstool has an extremely lightweight look: the tapered legs perfectly join the plywood seat without the addition of support parts and an element in die-cast aluminium guarantees the support for the feet. Another version presented in 2018 of Babila barstool, provided with backrest, features a shell with a curved silhouette characterized by a cut in the backrest which is available in polypropylene or upholstered in fabric or simil-leather. This barstool may be combined with tapered legs in ash joined together by a die-cast aluminium ring that acts as footrest, or with steel rod sled frame.
Launched in 2017, Babila Comfort adds a further element to the collection combining a large upholstered shell, featured by soft lines and reclined backrest, with different types of frame: four ash wood legs, steel tube sled frame and aluminium swivel base. The special feature of this version is surely the armrest, defined by a moulding that runs along the profile of the armchair.
In 2020 comes Babila XL: an armchair with a polypropylene shell that stands out for the large dimension of its seat and armrests. The aim is to offer greater seating comfort thanks to the removable lining that, recalling a woman’s dress, may be cleaned with ease, separating it from the rest of the product and ensuring its maintenance. In order to meet the growing need for environmental sustainability, Babila XL also comes in the “recycled grey” version made entirely from recycled material: 50% from plastic material post-consumer waste and 50% from plastic material industrial waste. Babila XL “recycled grey” is one of the first Pedrali products made from recycled polypropylene.
The latest addition to the collection is Babila Twist: an outdoor armchair in which the characteristic outline of the Babila armchair is transformed into a steel frame on which a rope is woven to create a cosy space, finished with a cushion made of weather-resistant materials. The weave of the Twist version, hand-woven in Italy by expert craftsmen, wraps around the armrests and creates a play of light and shadow on the backrest. A comfortable cushion made from dry-feel polyurethane foam that dries quickly, is covered in fabric for outdoor use. The distinctive character of Babila Twist is the woven body combined with a tubular steel frame with slats for the seat. These are screwed, making them easy to disassemble and recycle.
Today Babila is identified in a complete family of seating that, in its simplicity, manages to satisfy every need. Babila armchairs have been chosen to furnish hospitality contexts such as the Tenuta di Castellaro in Lipari, where the collection's armchairs fit into a magical and uncontaminated environment, painted with colours only nature can gift. Armchairs and stools also embellish the Philiaz restaurant in Caldaro on the Wine Road, located in a panoramic position surrounded by the vineyards of Oltradige and the Limonaia in Roncolo. The flexibility of this collection also allows the chairs to furnish office contexts such as Le Village by CA in Parma or the co-working space MUG Magazzini Generativi in Bologna. Even company canteens choose these seating: this is the case of the Pfizer headquarters in Wien and the Kilometro Rosso in Bergamo. Versatility is emphasised even more in multifunctional and educational contexts such as Spazio Te in Mantua, the Pirelli Learning Center in Milan and the Porsche Experience Center in Castrezzato.