Sacco, 40th Anniversary

Sacco, 40th Anniversary

A chair by any other name is still a chair but what about a chair with no legs, no arms, and no permanent seat or backrest?

Four decades ago, Pierro Gatti, Cesare Paolini, and Franco Teodoro filled a bag with polystyrene balls and presented it to Aurelio Zanotta, founder of the Italian furniture company Zanotta. The result: The world’s first mass-produced beanbag chair, the Sacco. Despite its radical departure from traditional chair design (Zanotta’s son and now CEO of the company, Martino Zanotta, describes its proposition as "ridiculously crazy" but in an exciting, revolutionary way), the Sacco—along with other novel creations for Zanotta such as Jonathan De Pas, Donato D’Urbino, and Paolo Lomazzi’s Blow chair , the first inflatable chair—paved the way for the company’s success and ascent to the international stage.



This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Sacco, which has been part of the New York MoMA’s  permanent collection since 1972. To celebrate, Zanotta has created a limited edition of 40 Sacco chairs made out of 40 unique fabrics. For more information, visit zanotta.com .

Sacco, 40th Anniversary - Photo 1 of 1 -

The world's first mass-produced beanbag chair reinvented conventional forms of sitting. The Sacco created by designers Pierro Gatti, Cesare Paolini, and Franco Teodoro has been part of MoMA's permanent collection for over 40 years.

Miyoko Ohtake
When not writing, Miyoko Ohtake can be found cooking, training for her next marathon, and enjoying all that the City by the Bay and the great outdoors have to offer.

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