Since its founding, Knoll has sought out and collaborated with the most creative and innovative architects and designers. That tradition continues with the Biboni Sofa by Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee of architecture firm Johnston Marklee. Capturing the spirit of their work, Biboni relates to the human body in the same manner as their architecture, shaping space into volumes, voids, and curves.
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The Biboni Sofa welcomes the human form with puffy folds precisely placed to envelop and embrace the sitter.
It’s both soft and supportive, holding the body in a relaxed yet upright position.On one hand, the bulbous shape of the Biboni Sofa is lighthearted and welcoming.
On the other, its scalloped silhouette and bespoke tailoring give it a formality and timelessness akin to that of a Chesterfield sofa.
The seat features a frame made of wood and wood derivatives, padded with flexible polyurethane foam of varying densities for optimal comfort. The upholstery is lined with polyester fibre, while the top layer is a non-removable bi-stretch fabric. The backrest and armrests have a metal structural core, padded with flexible moulded polyurethane foam and finished with the same non-removable bi-stretch fabric. The feet are equipped with plastic glides to ensure stability and floor protection.
Three new fabrics have been introduced specifically for the Biboni Sofa.
Two-seat Sofa
220cm W x 104cm D x 76cm H
Three-seat Sofa
308cm W x 104cm D x 76cm H
Four-seat Sofa
396cm W x 104cm D x 76cm H
Three-seat sofa with right/left chaise longue
308cm W x 176cm D x 76cm H
Fous-seat sofa with right/left chaise longue
396cm W x 176cm D x 76cm H
Los Angeles-based architectural firm Johnston Marklee was founded by Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee in 1998. Curved and scalloped forms are native to their work, which includes the Vault House in Oxnard, California; Pavilion of Six Views in Shanghai, China; and Dropbox Global Headquarters in San Francisco, California.
For architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, putting furniture pieces together in a room is akin to putting buildings together to form a city. “Whenever we’re designing environments, it’s about the relationship between objects in the room, how you move in it, and occupy it,” they say. “Furniture is connected to the building as a part of the architecture.”
Their firm, Johnston Marklee, was founded in Los Angeles in 1998. Since then, they’ve designed a custom series of benches and tables to complement their architectural vision for the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston, Texas, as well as other built-ins for architectural commissions, including the Knoll Store in West Hollywood, California. Yet, their Biboni™ Sofa marks the first time the duo puts a piece of furniture into production. The design draws on Johnston and Lee’s ongoing investigations of the presence of forms in space, how space structures itself into volumes, voids, and curvatures, and how light and shadow can sculpt forms.
Johnston Marklee has completed a diverse portfolio of buildings in a career spanning almost three decades, including Vault House in Oxnard, California, Pavilion of Six Views in Shanghai, China, and Dropbox Global Headquarters in San Francisco, California. Their work can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Menil Collection, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Architecture Museum of TU Munich.