The armchair seems as if, like a pop-up in a book, it was folded out of a set of boards. Was it the structural principle that you found the most exciting thing about the project?

Konstantin Grcic: I like that idea of the pop-ups, but has little to do with the structure of my armchair. For the Mattiazzi chair I wanted to find a language or a better grammar very close to wood as a material. I set myself rules to which I then adhered, like a Dogma filmmaker. One rule for example was that I only used wood in the form of boards. The shape of boards is so typical for wood: after the tree is felled, the trunk is sawn into planks. Another rule is that there must be no seamless joints between the individual components. Wood moves and this leads to a certain loss of material that in the longer term would affect any flush joints. There's a clear logic how the chair's structure defines its function and form. The design process is empirical, is accomplished using the object and the material. That's the nicest way to work, as the process is very direct. Mattiazzi manufactures the furniture in its own factory, which is very rare nowadays, as most companies we work with have their furniture made for them elsewhere. Mattiazzi makes them itself and that makes the development process all the clearer. The "Medici" design expresses that.

Your designs always have special names. How did you come up with "Medici"?

Grcic: I wanted to give the chair a name that lent it a certain stature and weight. The chair is large (and heavy, too). It exudes a lot of self-confidence, you could almost say arrogance. "Medici" seemed the right fit to me, but to be honest names are always a bit of a lottery.