The MDF Italia brand of furniture has only been available in the country for a couple of years, but contract manager Franco Cassina said that the Philippines has proven to be an “important” market.
“Filipinos appreciate the company’s clean and simple lines. In other countries like China, they prefer heavier, more traditional furniture. White, which we use a lot of, is also unpopular there, maybe because they associate it with death,” he said.
First-time visitors to the MDF Italia showroom located inside Dimensione will see a lot of white and black, but they will often note the clean lines of the pieces. These include a sleek table made of aluminum and resin (Tense Table), stools in different permutations (Flow Chair), and a bookcase one can stack a number of ways (Random Bookcase).
These deceptively simple pieces, however, are all backed by years of innovation.
Corporate clients
“The Tense Table by designers Piergiorgio and Michele Cazzariga looks like a regular one with four legs. These tables come in a number of lengths, but even at its longest, there is no need to prop it up with an extra pair of legs in the middle. It was designed to retain its shape,” Cassina said.
As a member of the board of directors and the company’s contract manager, Cassina deals mainly with corporate clients. Recent projects include outfitting the Google and Telecom Italia offices in Milan, Unicredit Bank in Bulgaria, and the KPMG Headquarters and Leo Burnett offices in London.
Almost all of these offices chose iterations of the Flow Chair by Jean Marie Massaud and the Tense Table for meeting rooms and lounges.
At the Dimensione store in BGC, the Flow Chair is available in seven bases, two shells, 10 kinds of fabrics and 15 colors. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Random Bookcase this year, MDF Italia will come out with a limited-edition bookcase later this year.