The Arnaldo armchair is a collaboration between Porro and Yabu Pushelberg built around a single idea: a chair that looks one way and feels another. It appears solid and architectural until you notice the suspended seat, the single junction point where backrest meets armrest, and the sense that the whole thing is somehow floating.
That balance between solidity and delicacy is not a happy accident. It’s the result of a year of research and refinement, and a design process rooted in a shared sensibility between two collaborators who approached the chair as something closer to a tailoring exercise than a furniture project.
Developed over a year of refinement, the Arnaldo armchair reflects a shared design language between Porro and Yabu Pushelberg, where precision engineering and artisanal craftsmanship come together in a quietly sculptural form.
The connection between Porro and Yabu Pushelberg runs through a mutual attention to purity of form and refined sartorial detail, according to Maria Porro. The interplay between solids and voids, the perception of lightness, the stitching that follows and enhances the chair’s silhouette, all reflect a common design language that made the collaboration feel natural from the start.
“The project emerged from their shared intention to create a seating piece with an almost poetic quality,” says Maria.
At the structural heart of the Arnaldo is a single junction point where the backrest meets the armrest, a design decision that creates what Maria describes as a “suspended, almost deconstructed effect,” as though the chair were composed of separate elements that happen to be resting against each other.
The Arnaldo armchair rethinks contemporary seating through suspended geometry, refined tailoring, and the enduring craftsmanship of Italy’s Brianza furniture makers.
“Its distinctive formal identity gives rise to multiple perspectives, making even the back an integral part of the design, conceived to be appreciated and showcased from every angle,” she says.
Production takes place entirely in Italy in collaboration with craftsmen from Brianza, the historic center of Italian furniture making that sits just north of Milan. Structural components and foam molds are produced using industrial processes, while the cutting and upholstery work (whether in fabric or leather) is carried out by hand, with close attention to the tailoring details that give the chair its character.
A study in proportion, material, and construction, the Arnaldo armchair embodies Porro’s commitment to timeless design through a collaboration grounded in precision, restraint, and Italian craftsmanship.
“The close proximity between the company and its artisans enables constant dialogue throughout every stage of the process, where local craftsmanship becomes a living resource, capable of responding with precision to the project’s requirements,” she says.
The chair was presented at the Salone del Mobile in April and will be available after the summer through Porro’s monobrand stores and its international network of authorized dealers. It comes upholstered in fabric or leather, and sits within Porro’s high-end contemporary positioning, a piece conceived, as Maria puts it, to “stand the test of time.”
