Glas Italia: Highest Standards of Crystal Furniture

Established in the early 1970s, Brianza-based Glas Italia produces modern furniture, doors-partitions and accessories in crystal glass. The house offers a rich range of minimalistic and monumental applications, which span from golden-ratio-inspired shelves to rainbow-defusing side tables. Today, Glas Italia continues to add internationally recognized names to its already impressive list of designers, that includes Naoto Fukasawa, Ron Gilad, Jasper Morrison, Piero Lissoni, Patricia Urquiola and many more.

Glas Italia explores the wide yet unique properties of material by employing the latest techniques. The following designs stand out as true emblems of the brand’s ethos while some have also been featured as a scenography in Glass is Tomorrow’s touring exhibitions: a Prism long table by Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka and Deep Sea shelves by Nendo.

Prism series by Tokujin Yoshioka plays on the refractive qualities of glass through sublime and ethereal forms – tables, shelving units, sofas and most recently, benches and cabinets. A bespoke cutting technique allows prismatic spectrums to glitter through thick transparent or silver-plated mirror panels.

With proportion echoing gray and blue gradients, Nendo’s Deep Sea collection moves in exponential measures. Composed of laminated and thermo-welded extra light glass, tables and bookcases appear fragile. These chromatic constructions leave no room for visible braces, but rather maintain a single material profile.

Within Glas Italia’s wide gamut, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s Diapositive benches, sofas, desks and small bookshelves implement solid natural woods to remove any impression of fragility. Clear, gray, lilac and orange laminated panes are framed by harder ash or brown oak. XXX low tables by Johanna Grawunder employ similar colours to create optical illusion. 6+6mm glass components are glued together with a special chamfering allowing multiple hues to appear at different angles. •

Main image
Tokujin Yoshioka: Prism Glass Closet (2015) for Glas Italia.

Glass Is Tomorrow is a European network, which aims at establishing more fluid exchange of knowledge and competencies between glass and design professionals in the north, south, east and west of Europe. Glass Is Tomorrow is initiated and organized by Brussels-based creative agency Pro Materia, which also publishes TLmagazine with Paris-based publishing house Bookstorming.