There are progressive furnishings design firms, after which there’s mdf italia, which is in a class all its personal. For 34 years, the Milan-based firm has been rigorously pursuing a minimalist design apply that seeks to uncover the essence of purposeful objects — after which push it even additional. “This isn’t minimalism as a mode, the stripped-back aesthetic you possibly can apply to something,” Architzer’s Sam Frew wrote in a latest characteristic on the corporate. “It’s minimalism as a way: a means of removing so rigorous that what stays feels near unattainable.”
mdf italia’s founder, Bruno Fattorini, describes the agency’s design technique as certainly one of “subtraction.” As Frew explains, this ethos might be seen in mdf italia classics such because the Tense desk, which at 13 toes (4 meters) in size is simply lengthy sufficient, and its legs simply slender sufficient, that it seems to defy physics. The modular seating system, Array, which MDF designed along with the powerhouse Danish structure agency Snøhetta, embodies the same precept with its infinitely modifiable minimal components that recall the legendary Japanese structure motion referred to as Metabolism. Array received the Jury Award on the 2025 Architizer A+Product Awards within the Furnishings Programs class.
Admirers of Array can even be occupied with studying about Goom, one other modular couch system by mdf italia that pushes minimalist precepts nicely previous something Donald Judd envisioned. Designed by the French architect and inventor Jean Marie Massaud and launched in 2025, Goom wasn’t designed as a lot because it was engineered to maximise consolation whereas minimizing extra of every kind. It does so by working with the drive of gravity, adapting to the load of the human physique. Consider the expertise of “sinking into” an previous couch. Now think about that very same stage of consolation in a pristine trendy couch that maintains its form. That is what Goom achieves via the rigorous mixture of construction and materials.
Because of fastidiously engineered foam upholstery, the Goom couch seems to defy gravity.
“The pursuit of wonderful consolation was the true design problem: the purpose was to mix an enveloping seat with an look that is still constantly composed and refined, characterised by full volumes and pure strains,” explains mdf italia. “This end result stems from an in-depth research of supplies and a layered building, with differentiated-density padding and pneumatic foams. A expertise conceived to convey collectively assist and softness, turning the seat right into a deeply stress-free expertise.”
Consolation and lightness are emphasised within the type of the couch, which seems to drift in mid-air due to fastidiously hid toes. The tip cushions float as nicely, because of their ingenious means they’re mounted to the contoured wooden finish helps. The rhythmic concave of the backrest is one other fascinating visible element that serves as a visible signature for Goom. There isn’t a different couch available on the market that fairly has this profile.
As a modular couch system, Goom is absolutely customizable and might be tailored into countless completely different configurations. “The gathering consists of single components in two completely different widths and chaise longues, each with an non-obligatory armrest, together with two nook modules and two poufs,” mdf italia explains. “Combining these elements permits linear, nook or extra articulated compositions, adapting the structure to the proportions of any area.”
What units Goom other than many modular programs available on the market is how effortlessly its flexibility is built-in. As a substitute of feeling like a group of separate elements pieced collectively, every configuration seems as a completely resolved object in its personal proper. This sense of cohesion displays mdf italia’s longstanding dedication to unity and readability, permitting even probably the most intricate preparations to take care of a peaceful and visually ordered presence.
Goom’s design additionally carries a delicate psychological layer. By adapting to the person’s weight and posture, the couch delivers an expertise that feels intuitive and virtually tailor-made. This responsiveness encourages a stronger connection between the person and the article. In design phrases, Goom is just not a static piece however a purposeful system that’s activated by interplay.
Goom is just not the primary mdf italia product to be designed by Jean Marie Massaud, who opened Studio Massaud in 2000 and has labored in industrial merchandise, lighting and structure in addition to furnishings. His different designs for mdf italia, which embody the Rock Desk and Circulation seating system, equally seem to defy gravity. As Massaud defined in a 2013 interview with Design Milk, “the world of silence, of marvel, of weightlessness, is my universe.” Massaud names the basic Disney film Fantasia, in addition to his longtime pastime of scuba diving, as key influences for his apply. For him, design is about capturing the creativeness — not simply assembly person wants. That is true even, or particularly, of minimalist design.
A premier instance of Massaud’s aesthetic is his 2008 proposal for a flying lodge formed like a humpback whale, a undertaking he titled “Manned Cloud.” Developed in partnership with the aerospace analysis partnership ONERA, Manned Cloud was conceived as a dirigible — a type that harkens again to the early, utopian interval of air management. One can see echoes of this futurist orientation in Goom, which by some means manages to take the on a regular basis type of the couch and make it new. The emphasis on foam padding within the upholstery moderately than natural materials is itself considerably space-age. And positively, the flexibility of froth to retain its form contributes to Goom’s gravity-defying look. After which there’s that title, Goom, like a planet from Star Trek.
It’s to the credit score of the designers that Goom wears all of this futurism frivolously. There are only a few interiors the place it could appear misplaced.
Consistent with mdf italia’s dedication to eco-conscious manufacturing, Goom is sort of fully constituted of sustainable supplies. The assist buildings are crafted from wooden sourced from responsibly managed forests. The padding is fabricated from polyurethane that features a mix of recycled supplies, and the cushion cowl is produced from recycled microfiber.
For these of us who won’t have the chance to journey to outer area, gravity sadly prevents us from understanding what it’s prefer to relaxation on air. However with mdf italia’s Goom couch system, one can expertise what it feels prefer to defy gravity — and accomplish that in type.
Designers trying to furnish with mdf italia’s sustainably-designed piece can learn extra about their seemingly weightless couch, Goom, right here.
