Why CUGINO soft? In one of my weekly video calls with Cristina Salvati (Global Sales & Marketing Director at Mattiazzi), she told me that it is increasingly difficult to find quality oak. There is less of it and prices have gone up steeply. There are different reasons for this. The war in Ukraine and the resulting supply shortages, growing competition and an increasingly protective market economy. CUGINO is made of fairly thick solid oak. The quality of the wood gives the stool its character and beauty. I wanted CUGINO to remain original, made of high-quality material and without compromise. In order to achieve this, we had to accept longer delivery times and a slight increase in costs. But this sacrifice triggered a plan B.

I thought, what if we put a simpler, more economical version alongside the original oak CUGINO? Not in exchange, but as an alternative, as a completely independent piece of furniture with other attributes and different properties. CUGINO soft is made of construction timber – the quality that roof trusses are made of: spruce wood. It is very different from oak. Less noble maybe, but lighter in weight and pale grained. The timber can be sourced locally, the trees grow quickly and in large numbers.

That has its effect on the price. The geometry of CUGINO soft is exactly the same as the original, but the round seat is covered with coloured linoleum. Some may now consider it more as a side table than a stool. That’s okay, CUGINO soft is a lot like its big brother, but different.