kettalmesh

a facade screen, softened

The starting point was architecture. Urquiola looked at the screens that filter a view on the outside of a building while light and air keep moving through them, and she used expanded metal the same way. On a Mesh sofa it forms the back and the gently bent arms. On the tables it carries the top, in teak or in marble. From across a garden the pieces read as outlines more than as solid blocks.

The family is built for lounging. It includes a fabric garden sofa, modular sofas that join into longer runs, a bench, an upholstered daybed, a garden bed and a reclining sun lounger. Beside them stand a teak garden table and an aluminum garden table, plus side tables in teak, aluminum and marble. A Kettal Mesh table with a marble top makes a heavier anchor next to the airy metal backs.

Each sofa rests on a solid teak base, and the cushions are thick enough to recall a living room indoors. Teak copes well with rain and sun, and left unoiled it turns silver gray over a season or two. The aluminum does not rust, which matters on a coastal property. Covers are mass-dyed acrylic, so the color runs through the fiber and lasts much longer in strong light.

Mesh works best on a pool deck or a covered terrace where the back of a sofa is on view from the house. The open metal lets a breeze through and keeps a long modular run from walling off the garden behind it. Within Kettal outdoor furniture it is the family where industrial material and soft upholstery meet most openly, and that contrast is the reason to pick it.

A facade screen behind, a living room in front.