Club 44 brings us to Switzerland. To Chaux-de-Fonds to be precise. Originally designed in 1957 for the renovated Club 44, it is a decidedly architectural armchair, still strikingly individual and totally functional. Fully stable, surprisingly comfortable, severe but with character, its seat design stems from the “Cavalletto” system, of which it is an ideal but more unusual continuation. Here the classic inverted V pattern that characterizes the system becomes the profile of a leg at the top from which the arm finds its ideal point of support.
The setting up of Club 44 in La Chaux-de-Fonds sees Mangiarotti and Morassutti engaged in the creation of an environment for collective recreation within an old theatre. The solution adopted safeguards the spatial continuity, using mobile panels and walls, to better respond to the changing needs of the club.
Several rooms were in fact required: the main one, for conferences, was placed in the centre and became an ideal meeting point and link between the various activities. The side walls of the large room are covered with natural ash panels mounted on metal frames, alternating with glass parts, while the central wall is replaced by a blue cloth curtain.
In the upper part of the room is the gallery, suspended by white lacquered iron rods, while the lighting is recessed in the ceiling behind square-shaped glass panes.
