Bavul by Lea Aviani | June 2020
Bavul is a multifunctional upholstered object that transforms from a bench to a bed. Its shape and a name are a reminiscence of a Dalmatian antique chest that was used for storage, seating or travel, and it was handed over as a legacy inside the family.
Bavul in its basic form serves as a seating system in a living room, dining room at a table, or in a hallway – waiting to welcome your needs for the additional bed. Its dimensions are also perfect match for the hospitality projects where it saves the precious space. With strong visual appearance and color combinations, Bavul blends in various interior styles.
Materials
- Structure plywood
- Seat HR foam, polyester wadding
- Upholstery fabric
- Decorative belt leather (black or brown)
Dimensions
- Bavul bench +
- Bavul bench opened as a bed +
Lea Aviani
Lea Aviani was born in 1977 in Split, Croatia. She graduated at The School of Design, an interdisciplinary study program at the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb, in 2002, but she soon returned to Split to work with local craftspeople.
She formed a company PROJECTUM, as a collaborative effort of industrial designers, architects and civil engineers to cover all projects actualized outside the sphere of industrial design.
LAP (LEA AVIANI+PROJECTUM) aims to provide research, professional work and artistic activity in the field of design and architecture.
Lea´s work is strongly influenced by mediterranean way of life so she tries to unite tradition with innovation. The results are works with a strong expression and emotionality.
Prostoria
We tend to perceive furniture as something abstract, created on designers’ desks, and then produced, branded, and placed on the market by companies with different statuses and reputations. In fact, relations inside the contemporary globalized furniture industry are becoming more and more fragmented with less and less opportunity for complete dedication to synergies and collaborations… Prostoria, as a young company whose catalog already comprises some new icons such as the Polygon armchair and the Revolve transformable sofa, stands as an example of a different and more traditional approach based on the evolution from the local factuality and logical clustering of all actors involved in the production process.
The rapid development of Prostoria, formerly known as Kvadra, a company which has come a long way, from “starting from zero” to positioning itself as the leader and promoter of new ideas in only a few years time, is a story about the reintroduction of continuity both in Croatia and Central Europe, a region with vital but insufficiently recognized design scene and remarkable tradition and knowledge of the furniture industry. Those elements served as latent potentials that provided grounds for a continuation and had to be activated.
Since the beginning, Prostoria has been developing an integrative approach, functioning as a collaboration platform that nourishes and stimulates the continuous exchange of knowledge and experience between all the actors participating in the production of furniture. A dynamic workshop ambiance has been created offering opportunities mainly to young designers to explore their ideas in excellent conditions and bring them to the highest level of design, functionality, and technological artisanship. Many products have been developed over long periods of time surpassing a number of iterations until reaching their final form, which would be impossible without adequate support combining the contemporary technology and meticulous craftsmanship and handwork of the highest quality. Predominantly local materials are used, especially solid wood, and most of the production takes place within the company itself or in collaboration with local cooperatives.
While the company’s catalog also offers furniture based on tested models, Prostoria shows strategic and even passionate dedication to research-based design, convinced that authenticity has its place on the market but presents a special challenge in the times when it seems almost impossible to create truly innovative and fresh concepts. For that reason, Prostoria’s social responsibility and specific position have to be observed as a contribution to the evolution of design and readiness to take the risk in order to reach new values for the benefit of users and the culture. Thus, Prostoria stands as a project inside of which designers grow together with the company on the grounds of mutual trust and shared goals.
