Afra & Tobia Scarpa “920” Three-Seat Sofa for Cassina , 70s

The “920” sofa was designed by Afra and Tobia Scarpa in the mid-1960s (c. 1966), during the couple’s early collaboration with Figli di Amedeo Cassina in Meda. It belongs to the same design season as their celebrated “Bastiano” system: a rationalist response to the overstuffed sofas of the period, built as a modular sequence of independent elements bolted together, each with its own legs. The 920 remains one of the clearest statements of the Scarpas’ method — construction shown rather than hidden — and appears in the reference literature on Cassina’s 1960s catalogue.

This example is a three-seater composed of three bolted modules. The body is fully upholstered in cognac leather with visible saddle stitching, framed by exposed solid ash edging that runs along the base and rises to cap the armrests — a lighter, warmer alternative to the more common walnut version. The seat rests on elastic webbing stretched over a grey lacquered frame, with loose polyurethane-filled cushions for seat and back, and the characteristic grey block feet of the model.