The Pigreco Chair: How Tobia Scarpa Redefined Italian Design at 24
Some furniture designs are born from decades of experience. The Pigreco was born from a graduation project. In 1959, a young Tobia Scarpa — just 24, studying architecture at the University of Venice under Franco Albini — set out to give a chair something no chair had before: a sense of space.
The result was radical. Four legs, but not as you'd expect. Two rear legs placed so close together they almost merge into one, creating a triangular silhouette that feels like it's moving even when standing still. The name says it all: Pigreco, the Italian word for the mathematical symbol π. Geometry made tangible in walnut and leather.
From Student Project to Design Icon
What makes the Pigreco remarkable is how much restraint it shows for a first design. There's nothing excessive here. A bent plywood backrest curves gently around the sitter. The upholstered seat appears to float. Every joint, every angle serves a purpose. Tobia wanted to capture dynamism — the feeling that a static object could convey movement. He succeeded.
Gavina, the visionary Italian manufacturer known for producing some of the 20th century's most daring furniture, put the Pigreco into production from 1960 onwards. It was a statement of confidence in a young designer who would go on — together with his wife Afra — to create some of the most celebrated pieces in Italian design history.
A Chair That Still Commands Attention
The Pigreco never became mass-market, which is precisely why it endures. Original vintage examples in walnut are increasingly rare and highly sought after by collectors of mid-century modern furniture. The warm grain of the wood, the honest patina of decades — these are qualities no reissue can replicate.
Tacchini eventually reissued the design, confirming its place in the canon of 20th-century Italian design furniture. But for those who value authenticity, the originals produced by Gavina remain the definitive version.
We currently have a set of three authentic Pigreco armchairs by Afra & Tobia Scarpa in beautiful walnut, produced by Gavina in the 1960s. Professionally reupholstered, with stunning wood grain and the kind of patina that only time can create.