Core77 - Blog • Feb. 3, 2026, 3:30 p.m.

Public seating pieces for offices, lounges, waiting areas and the like are often bulky. The pieces typically consist of upholstery attached to enclosed wooden frames, with plenty of adhesives bonding one material to another.

For this Circulus modular furniture system, Italian industrial designer Mario Ferrarini took a different approach. Rather than wood, Ferrarini opted for a lightweight aluminum frame, the panels of which have been perforated to save on both material and weight.

The upholstered part is a separate component that clips to the frame around its perimeter; there are no adhesives nor fasteners used. This means that, in the event of damage, the piece does not have to be carted off to a workshop to be disassembled (or worse, thrown out entirely).

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