alcove sofa seating ronan & erwan bouroullec vitra

Alcove sofa

A sofa is both a social and a security zone. It is an environment on its own: a room inside a room, inside a home. With this notion in mind, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec designed the Alcove Sofa inspired by the Arabic “al-qubba”, a secluded, upholstered niche designed for lounging and sleeping. Like its ancient forbearer, the Alcove Sofa creates an intense sense of intimacy and enclosure, a feeling of escape from the chaos of the outside world. You don’t sit on an Alcove Sofa, you retreat into it. It is tall and deep and remarkably soft. Lay back, tuck up your feet, and you’re in another safer, warmer, more private world.

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The sofas of the Alcove family provide places of retreat where you can scarcely be seen or heard from the outside. As ‘a space in a space’ they offer their own world of colour, comfort and tranquillity. The Alcove Love Seat offers all these advantages in a limited space and makes use of thin, flexible wall panels which, despite its compact external dimensions, provide the double-seater with a maximum of interior space.

With the Alcove Highback Sofa the side and back panels have been raised even higher so that they are considerably above the head area of the person seated. In this way, a perfect place is provided for optical and acoustic screening — whether in the office, in a lobby or in a large room in the home. When two Alcove Highbacks are placed facing one another they form a small meeting area — a special space for concentration and refuge. Additionally, anyone looking for the maximum degree of privacy will choose the Love Seat in the Highback design. With its particularly high side and back panels, this piece of furniture offers a quite unique feeling of security.