Good design has always been able to quietly but effectively permeate aspects of human social relations, connoting areas of public and private life with products that punctually respond to people’s needs, sometimes even anticipating needs that are not yet explicit. Unable to deny the social function of furniture in today’s society, Vitra presents an exhibition that aims to reveal the implicit relationship between objects and the definition of human categories that these objects help to form. Drawing on the vast Vitra archive, the Austrian-Parisian designer Robert Stadler, no newcomer to this kind of format, presents a panorama of 200 current products alongside icons, prototypes, limited editions, flops and future ideas. He observes the objects outside of conventional furniture categories, thinking of them instead as characters and dividing them into groups that reflect stereotypical behavioural models and personality profiles of today’s society.

Finally, to remain with the theme of furniture that reflects diverse forms of society, Vitra has asked numerous designers, including Konstantin Grcic, Barber Osgerby, Ronan ed Erwan Bouroullec and Commonplace Studio, to develop ideas for a collective living space entitled «The Communal Sofa», since even the sofa can be considered a multifunctional piece of furniture, which exists in our homes, offices and external and internal public space with different functions that often vary wildly.