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"According to Walter Rossi, an Italian-born architect-turned-furniture designer
who owns Walter Rossi Inc. on New York's Lower East side,
'The concept of metal
furniture used exclusively inside the home started with Bauhaus designers around
1930.' Strikingly original pieces from the German art school, created by Swiss
Modernist architect Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer and Mies van der Rohe, left an enduring
legacy. 'Contemporary designs haven't
progressed much since then, but metal manufacturing has been transformed by
the invention of sophisticated machines.'
"Rossi's custom iron love seat wouldn't have been possible even 30 years ago.
'I wouldn't have been able to weld the stainless steel,' he explains.
Aided by electrical welders and a plasma cutter to cut metal sheets, he designs and
fabricates his own postmodern furniture. He forges the metal himself, heating it and
then shaping it with an anvil and hammer. Shown upholstered in lipstick red, the
whimsical love seat--in black-coated stainless-steel instead of a chrome finish--was
clearly inspired by Le Corbusier's sweeping curves. As a self-described
"minimalist-structuralist," however, Rossi has built the entire frame in steel,
perched on thin legs."
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