For a company like Molteni&C, which has a history stretching back to 1934, its design archives are a rich source of inspiration – and this is the story behind the aptly named Heritage Collection. Developed through research into the company’s history, its museum, historical archives, and long-standing relationships with some of the world’s most celebrated designers and architects, the collection is an opportunity to reimagine forgotten treasures for today’s world.
The Heritage Collection brings the intent of 20th-century masters of design – including Gio Ponti, Afra and Tobia Scarpa, Ignazio Gardella, and Werner Blaser – into the 21st century. Most pieces in the collection are drawn from unique or limited edition designs, sketches and models, which offer new insights into the minds of these designers. The original vision is respected, while contemporary technologies and materials give new life.
At the heart of the collection is a series of pieces conceived by Gio Ponti between 1935 and the 1970s. Re-edited by Molteni&C in collaboration with the Gio Ponti Archives, the furniture and accessories expand Ponti’s impressive output across design, architecture, publishing, and art.
The D.154.2 armchair, which was designed by Ponti in 1954 for Villa Planchart in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas for collectors Anala and Armando Planchart, is a particularly evocative example. “I dedicated myself heart and soul to designing Villa Planchart, and in it I was at liberty to express my own approach to architecture, both outside and inside,” Ponti wrote in Domus magazine in 1955.
Like the villa itself, the chair is an expression of design, art and hospitality, with a shell-like form that was conceived to welcome guests and a curving profile that gives it the presence of sculpture. Reissued by Molteni&C in 2015, the D.154.2 was awarded the Compasso d’Oro Career Award for Products. The Outdoor version was launched in 2022.
Last year, Molteni&C’s, under the creative direction of Vincent Van Duysen, again delved into the company’s archives to uncover pieces that would pay tribute to Milan in the 1970s and ‘80s. In his research, coming across the Monk chair by Afra and Tobia Scarpa, which was originally designed in 1973 and last produced in 1990. In 2025 the Monk chair became part of the collection.
Monk is named for the simple, almost monastic character of the design, as well as the letter M that often marked Afra and Tobia Scarpa’s work for Molteni&C. Two equally sized solid-wood trestles are connected by shaped metal tubing, with suspended leather sections forming the seat and back. The re-edition preserves that spirit, while offering the chair in American walnut, black oak, or coffee oak; and a lower, wider format for contemporary living spaces.
“We must let what the past gives us continue to express itself, to live,” Tobia Scarpa said at the time of Monk’s launch. “Sometimes you have to let it resonate in the present, let it sing, to grasp all its potential and magic.” It’s a powerful sentiment that – like the Heritage Collection – is just as relevant today as it was decades ago.
