Craft and Culture: New Furniture from Charles Zana

By Rachel Gallaher

Image by François Hallard, courtesy Charles Zana

As seen in Issue 61

Released this fall at an exhibition in Paris and available to the public in January 2022, Charles Zana Mobilier—the new furniture brand from French architect and interior designer Charles Zana—focuses on elegance and high-quality craftsmanship while embodying the restraint Zana is known for. The collection, which includes tables, a desk, chairs, headboards, sofas, and lighting, takes cues from the work of great designers of the 1930s: the natural materials favored by Jean-Michel Frank, the tension in Pierre Chareau’s compositions, and the sensual curves of Gio Ponti’s creations. Zana worked with French craftspeople to execute his designs, and he put a premium on long-lasting materials including leather, solid oak, and travertine. “As a trained architect and an art lover, I am guided by three fundamental principles: proportion, elegance, and comfort,” he says. “With this new collection I seek to achieve the same balance among purity of forms, simplicity of volumes, and functionality as I embark on a new quest to create timeless design.”