This year at Salone del Mobile 2013 Kartell presents ‘La Galleria’, an installation which has been structured to emulate that of the famous galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, known for its luxury retail stores. Within each portico of this architectural space, pieces of the Italian furniture company’s 2013 collection are being displayed offering the viewer a ‘window shopping’.

Here, Philippe Starck’s true family of indoor and outdoor furniture pieces ‘Aunts and Uncles’ comprised of five designs: the ‘Uncle Jack’ sofa, ‘Uncle Jim’ armchair, ‘Uncle Jo’ chair, ‘Aunt Jamy’ dining table’ and ‘Aunt Maggy’ console is being shown. The stimulus which informed their shapes is derived from Starck’s memory of his aunts and uncles sitting in their armchairs and sofas
either smoking their pipes, knitting or gathered around telling stories to the family–his resulting work seen as a minimalist technological interpretation of these.

The entire collection of seating and tables are produced in transparent polycarbonate using injection molding technology–one of the key points to mention is the ability of having producing the ‘Uncle Jack’ sofa using this method because of its size of almost 2 metres long, something which has not previously been possible.

http://www.designboom.com/design/philippe-starck-aunts-and-uncles-seating-for-kartell/