The Miamina Armchair
1984 Salvati & Tresoldi propose to Saporiti Italia to produce a “homage” to Tripolina, the folding chair in wood and fabric used by the British army in its African campaigns in 1800s/1900s.
Saporiti Italia creates an innovative structure with steel tubes connected by an advanced spheroidal cast iron joint.
The seat is made of a sandwich of structural fabrics and a “canvas” colored for Saporiti Italia by Ottavio and Rosita Missoni, or made with the embossed leathers by Guido Pasquali, or with the woven leathers by Gegia Bronzini.
The Miamina chair is launched in 1983 at the Saporiti Italia showroom in Miami, from which it takes its name, and then in an extraordinary exhibition at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan.
In 1987 Professor Ardito Desio, geologist, explorer and organizer of the first ascent to Mount K2 in 1954, together with mountaineer Agostino Da Polenza, director of the scientific committee Everest K2 CNR, ask the Saporiti’s to help them to create the highest research laboratory in the world: the EV-K2-CNR Pyramid, created at the base camp of mount Everest at an altitude of 5,050 meters.
Saporiti Italia sponsors the creation of the laboratory-pyramid, realizing its interiors with special ultra-light materials and creating a special edition of the Miamina chair, with a lightened frame and the seat designed by famous graphic designer Bob Noorda.
