COPACABANA LOUNGE CHAIR
BY MATHIEU MATÉGOT
COPACABANA REVISITED
Created in 1955, Matégot’s iconic chair has been sensitively updated as a statement piece of indoor-outdoor furniture.
A TIMELESS FAVORITE
One of the greatest gifts of Hungarian-born designer Mathieu Matégot was his ability to transform robust industrial materials such as metals into the most delicate of forms. Few designs express this talent so beautifully as the Copacabana, a sculpturally curved lounge chair whose structure is formed with a single swirl of tubular steel.
Elegant but laid-back, the mid-century design has become one of Matégot’s most well-known, and a timeless favorite among lovers of modern design around the world. The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris holds the design in its permanent collection.
Created in 1955, Matégot’s iconic chair has been sensitively updated as a statement piece of indoor-outdoor furniture. The 360o revision preserves the singular expressive genius of Matégot’s vision while introducing a bold new colorway and refining its ergonomics for modern-day body shapes.
A precision-engineered adjustment to the angle of the backrest and seat maximizes comfort when sitting. At the same time, a stainless-steel material upgrade, additional drainage holes in the metal base of the seat, and the addition of outdoor upholstery fabrics enable the Copacabana to migrate between indoors and out, from lounge to loggia, parlor to patio, salon to sunroom.
FROM INSIDE TO OUTSIDE
Copacabana’s new ability to migrate from inside to out is a natural evolution of Matégot’s own furniture vision. Like his comparably curvy Tropique Collection, the Copacabana Chair has a distinctly bohemian aesthetic and an alfresco feel, expressing its creator’s approach to living space, where the difference between indoor and outdoor furniture lies not in aesthetics, only in material.
To withstand life outdoors, the original tubular steel of the design has been upgraded to powder-coated stainless steel, which is corrosion-resistant, much stronger, and more rigid. Three stainless steel tubular rings are pinned and welded together to form the seat.
The base is an oval that is bent using highly specialist production techniques to form the continuous rear leg. The upper ring mirrors the lower to form the backrest. The straight front legs are welded securely into place to ensure the chair’s stability.
A CURATED CHOICE OF CUSHIONS
Now attached to the base, the chair’s cushion is available with a selection of indoor and outdoor upholstery options, including GUBI’s exclusive Leslie jacquard fabric that also features in Matégot’s Tropique Collection, and the soft and luxurious but highly resistant Lorkey.
With orange, white, and blue-toned colors available, both fabrics are designed with the outdoors in mind, offering a balance of elegant looks and durability that is equally desirable inside the house, where the pressures of everyday life can often leave their mark on less robust textiles. If the chair is to be used indoors only, the Copacabana’s cushion can be upholstered with any desired indoor fabric from GUBI’s extensive upholstery collection.
MATHIEU MATÉGOT
Mathieu Matégot (1910 - 2001) was a versatile, independent, and self-taught Hungarian designer, architect and artist who spent most of his life in his beloved Paris, where he for the first time settled in 1931 after finishing his studies at Budapest's School of Art and Architecture.
In 1939, Matégot signed up as a volunteer for the French army but was held as a prisoner in Germany until he escaped in 1944. This wartime captivity was an important time, career-wise, for Matégot as it was here he was able to familiarise himself with the innovative material and technique, Rigitulle - which later would become a characteristic trait of his..