The New Saturna Sofa

Upholstery Arts July 1, 2009

UA's newest sustainable design, Saturna sofa, is now in the showroom. Saturna is a graceful and sculptural circular ‘environment’ that quietly swivels 360 degrees. Save for the recyclable base, the entire sofa is biodegradable.

Saturna is made from FSC certified wood, natural latex, 100% wool, is LEED eligible and built to contract quality standards throughout. It is the first sofa of it’s kind that contains no toxic or carcinogenic chemicals.

The first ten were manufactured in May at the introductory price of only $6,000. Be among the first to own a limited edition Saturna. Contact the UA showroom and reserve one today.

UA News Interviews Len Laycock

UA News Why make a round sofa, Len?
Len I’ve wanted to for quite a while. I just needed the right client.

UA News Who was that?
Len Kerry and Jennifer Sears asked me to come up with a solution for their living room and adjacent sun room. They wanted a fun thing that could face into the living room area and also turn to face the natural light from their windows facing west and north. They have two children and thought it would be great to have a piece of furniture they could fill with pillows and pile their whole clan into.

UA News Sounds like a fun project.
Len It was. And I was pleased to be asked because the concept of a round sofa has not been well executed by designers. Most round sofas look like they belong in an Austin Powers movie or a Nevada whorehouse. Even B&B Italia (Maxalto) whom we respect, have made a round sofa that in my opinion is not a successful design. So this needed to be done.

UA News “Not a successful design” you say? Then what makes a sofa design ‘successful’?
Len It must function for the purpose intended, it must be green and it must be a beautiful piece of ‘sculpture’. We’ve achieved all of that with Saturna.

UA News Why do you place so much the emphasis on green, sustainable design?
Len With what we know today about global warming, the vast quantity of poisons in the products we surround ourselves with, and the consequences of all this foolishness, a design in the 21st century is most certainly a failure if it does resolve these problems. ‘Design’ is where all projects begin, so we designers own the responsibility to design sustainable solutions in to products from the very start.

UA News But doesn’t that limit the choice of materials, the manufacturing methods and therefore limit the creative possibilities?
Len No! Design without limits is hubris. To create a good design you require limitations, a framework within which you work. Your imagination should always remain limitless, but you need a clear point of view in order to create consistently good designs. The best designs don’t fight nature, they work with it. This was true in the time of Michaelangelo and just as true today.

UA News Why did you call this design Saturna?
Len We have long history of assigning local names to our products. Saturna is a small island in the gulf, just a short distance from Vancouver. Saturna is also the planet known for its rings. Our Saturna is a series of rings as well. And lastly, I wanted something in the name that implied that it revolves 360 degrees - planets do that.