Chair N. 05/20 in Wood and Resin by Paola Navone

Architect and designer Paola Navone has had an enormous impact on modern furniture design. For over 40 years, she has created interior furnishings for residential and hospitality spaces. She has traveled the world and infused her experiences into her creations, developing a strong appreciation for the architecture and design of Asia. This includes the use of bamboo in much of her furniture, as well as in the simple, natural look of her works.

Not adhering to a single style, Navone’s work reflects a range of influences. She is just as comfortable fashioning a simple, rustic footstool as she is creating an opulent pendant lamp. From her sofas and armchairs to the design of her table lamps and vases, the eclectic variation demonstrates her versatility and innovation.

Navone was born and raised in Turin, Italy. She studied architecture at Turin’s polytechnic school and graduated in 1973. Shortly after, she moved to Milan and entered the world of interior design and architecture. She also worked as a product designer, event organizer and teacher.

Throughout the 1980s, Navone was part of the Memphis Group — a collective of designers and architects who challenged the conventions of traditional design — and associated with such notable designers as Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendini. She also belonged to the avant-garde design group Studio Alchimia, which shared many affiliations with the Memphis Group.

In 1983, Navone won the Osaka International Design Award and in 2000, she was named the AW Architektur & Wohnen Designer of the Year. In 2011, she won the ELLE Decor International Design Award. In recent years, Navone has collaborated with Crate & Barrel and clothing retailer Anthropologie and continues to work with companies across the architecture and design industries.

On 1stDibs, browse Paola Navone seating, lighting, tables and more.

In the mid-90’s Gaetano Pesce pioneered the use of the resin to create design products. As an artist, craftsman and alchemist, he started to create unique objects pouring the resin into moulds and “letting the material to become objects”. In 1996 the Fish Design adventure begins. In 2003 Pesce meets Andrea Corsi and sharing the magic formula, he entrusted him to create a new range of products. Andrea started to reproduce "what seemed so easy to make when he was making it" and in no time he added his way of conceiving objects to Gaetano Pesce’s great intuition. He became an alchemist himself, changing the resin composition and working on its transparency; different approach from Pesce’s traditional opaque colours. The flowing and visionary shapes created by Fish Design for more than 20 years - the vases POMPITU, SPAGHETTI, MEDUSA, AMAZONIA, - from the hands of Gaetano Pesce before and Andrea Corsi later, have become a chapter of design history. In addition to the renovated vase collections, Andrea Corsi and his team of young artists/craftsmen created new ranges of products, “wearable” objects and collections in collaboration with design masters like Alessandro Mendini, Enzo Mari, Humberto and Fernando Campana. Unique collections such as Mendinismi, Lezione by Enzo Mari and Nativocampana show the different ways of thinking and shaping objects using the same material. Andrea Corsi’s adventure, based on Gaetano Pesce’s teachings, keeps developing, following its own creative path.