The new 520 padded chair by Marco Dessí for Thonet: contemporary elegance, sociability and communication

For 200 years, Thonet's timeless chairs have symbolized the pleasure of getting together, sitting together and celebrating the joys of life. Marco Dessí, Italian designer based in Vienna, created the 520 upholstered chair inspired by the concept of the Café Thonet and reinterpreted in a contemporary key.

The variants make this chair ideal not only for the dining table: comfort is combined with the visual lightness of the seat, elegance recalls the culture and history of the classic Thonet bentwood. In the Dessí design, the surfaces of the seat and back, free between the curved wood elements, are filled with comfortable padding. The construction allows for variants with and without armrests. The possible combinations with a wide range of different materials allow a wide use of the collection ranging from sophisticated dining to executive meeting.

For the 520, Dessí designed two backrests, with armrests (520 PF) and without armrests (520 P). The possibility of choosing and combining different wood surfaces and coatings allows you to customize the 520 to your liking by adapting this seating model to a wide variety of settings: from high-level catering to the dining room or meeting table.

At a glance

What is it?
A chair designed for private domestic spaces and fine dining, to work in a group or alone at the desk. Aimed at an audience that invests in a high quality product belonging to a brand that has revolutionized the way chairs are produced and changed the way public and domestic environments are lived.
What is its design concept?
The chair represents the company's DNA, summarized in the typical curved wooden loop that connects the rear legs to support the lumbar area. Opening that acts as a grip for when you move it and lightens it aesthetically. By studying the classics in bentwood, a formal language was developed based on the possibilities and limitations of this technology, subtracting any nostalgic aura from the project to give it a marked contemporary note.
What is it made of and how?
The technology developed by Michael Thonet in 1859 is used to create a structure on which we can mount upholstered parts with or without armrests. The combination of wooden structure and textile parts leaves room for a wide range of customizations by designers and architects.
How and where is it produced?
It is produced in Germany at the Frankenberg plant and combines new technologies with traditional methods.
How is it made?
Strong arms and great experience are needed to bend steam rods on metal templates. This technology applied to the 520 chair was invented and developed by Michael Thonet in 1859. The chair is made up of various parts that need to be precisely machined to function once composed.
Why is it special?
It represents the symbiosis between the past and the future of the company, it is a product made to measure for this company.
In the designer's words
“For the 520 I studied the Thonet classics. The backrest that joins the rear legs to form a unit is the icon that distinguishes the Thonet brand. Our whole approach is essentially based on this detail. "