Cassina, B&B Italia Open in Miami Design District
MILAN — High-end Italian furniture maker Cassina and Design Holding’s B&B Italia both took advantage of the buzz around Art Basel Miami Beach to open their latest U.S. locations.
Cassina’s new directly operated new store, which spans over 6,000 square feet, is located in the Miami Design District and is the third U.S. unit to open this year. In May, Cassina opened its largest store in the world in Los Angeles, which was followed by Seattle, and it also has a directly run, monobrand store in New York on East 56th Street.
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B&B Italia’s new flagship is also positioned in the Miami Design District and was designed by Italian architectural firm Lissoni & Partners. The space, which spans over 21,000 square feet and two floors, is focused on introducing design lovers to the best in Italian and Scandinavian furnishing and lighting.
The ground floor includes B&B Italia’s signature products and new releases, which include the Dambo couch by Italian architect and designer Piero Lissoni (founder of Lissoni & Partners); the Tobi-Ishi table by British designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, and the Camaleonda sofa system by Mario Bellini adorned in a new fabric designed by Stella McCartney with her S-Wave monogram, highlighted with a large installation upon entering the space. Maxalto and Azucena furnishings, Arclinea kitchens and lighting by Flos and Louis Poulsen are also available in the space.
In a statement, Design Holding said the B&B Italia Design Studio in Miami is the first store on the East Coast to embody the group’s new, multibrand experience in which signature B&B Italia designs are placed with the rest of its galaxy of furniture, kitchen and lighting brands Maxalto, Azucena, Arclinea, Flos and Louis Poulsen among them.
For March 2024, Design Holding is gearing up to open a new retail center named Madison 135. The space will open its doors on Manhattan’s Madison Avenue and will feature B&B Italia and other products from the group’s umbrella. New B&B Italia stores also opened this year in Washington, D.C., and Boston.
For Cassina, Miami, with its booming construction and real estate market, represents an opportunity for high-end furniture companies, commented Cassina chief executive officer Luca Fuso. Cassina has invested significantly in increasing its presence globally with openings in cities such as Dubai; Seoul; Lyon and Marseille, France; Athens, Greece; and in London inside of Harrods.
“We are delighted to now have our own space in Miami, a city that has over these past years evolved and established itself as a global hub where creativity is fully appreciated and high-end furniture is in great demand,” Fuso said.
Designed to feel like a home, the living, dining, sleeping and outdoor atmospheres have been curated around “The Cassina Perspective,” a collection that embodies the firm’s vision and honors bygone greats as well as potential new ones.
London-based, Cypriot designer Michael Anastassiades and the company’s art director Patricia Urquiola are among the living designers whose works are placed alongside evergreen designs created by the likes of Swiss-French architect and designer Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand, as well as Italian architect and designers Vico Magistretti and Gio Ponti.
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