Azucena - Toro sofa

Designed for the Monticello country club on the outskirts of Milan, the Toro sofa and armchair can be admired from every angle and confidently take up centre stage.

Why Toro - bull in Italian? Because you can literally “take it by the horns” thanks to the metal frame emerging through the padding. The seat arms terminate in handles that allow you to move and rotate the furniture with consummate ease. The Milanese country club guests used to configure and reconfigure the seating as required, moving them closer together to converse or further apart for peace and quiet. These bulls are docile and easy to handle. More like Sitting Bull, the legendary Sioux leader who features in so many films and Italian cartoon strips from the 60s and 70s when Toro was first designed. Or perhaps Caccia Dominioni was thinking of Taurus, the sign of the zodiac? The easy-going, gentle and yet decisive nature of these creations makes this interpretation just as likely. With their rounded, inviting and well-upholstered shapes, the sofa and armchair can be complemented to perfection by a comfortable and simple footrest. This is all about relaxation and dialogue, a 1960s classic that - like every prize bull - doesn’t age or ever go out of fashion.

Luigi Caccia Dominioni

Luigi Caccia Dominioni was born in Milan on 7 December 1913, in the family home in Piazza Sant'Ambrogio, a house that he rebuilt after the destruction in the bombing of August 1943.

He completed the entire cycle of studies, up to the Liceo classico, at the Istituto Leone XIII in Milan, run by the Jesuits. In 1931 he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture at the Regio Istituto Tecnico Superiore (future Politecnico di Milano). During his university studies he met Livio and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Cesare Cattaneo, Giannino Bernasconi - the future BBPR - and his teachers were Luigi Moretti and Piero Portaluppi.  He graduated in 1936 and obtained a professional qualification in Venice. In 1937, with the brothers Livio and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, he opened a professional studio: together with them he participated in various competitions, obtaining brilliant results.  The first realization in the field of industrial design, together with them, dates back to 1938 and concerns some models of radio equipment for Phonola, later improved and presented in 1940 at the VII Triennale di Milano; At the Triennale, the three architects also stand out for the setting up of exhibitions and the production of other design objects, such as Miracoli cutlery. His professional activity ranges from design to architecture and takes place mainly in Milan.

Azucena

In 1947 Luigi Caccia Dominioni , Ignazio Gardella and Corrado Corradi Dell'Acqua founded the company. The Italian brand Azucena has always stood out for its collections that combine formal elegance, discreet luxury, pure and sharp aesthetics and a very high craftsmanship.

Azucena (named after the gypsy of the play Il Trovatore) was created to collect furniture projects for the furnishing of the buildings they designed.

A series of iconic pieces that revive, characterized by the union of different materials, but always refined, and the reinterpretation of traditional stylistic forms.

In 2018 he joined B&B Italia, which wanted to preserve and revive him, in an active vision of Italian heritage. The historic brand returns to the market with a series of "modern classics" designed by architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni from the late 1940s.

Chairs, sofas, tables and lamps that have written the history of Made in Italy design and that return today as a testimony of class and quality.