Italian design sofas, drawn for the garden

Search for Italian design sofas and you land in living rooms: leather, velvet, city apartments. RODA works the same tradition outdoors. Since Rodolfo Dordoni joined in 2005, the company from Lake Varese has asked its designers to draw RODA outdoor furniture the way they would draw a sofa for a room indoors, and then to make it stand up to rain.

Two systems show what that looks like: Philia by Rodolfo Dordoni and Basket by Gordon Guillaumier.

Philia: a sofa that remembers a boat

Dordoni, RODA's art director since 2005, built RODA Philia around carabottino, the slatted teak grating on the deck of a yacht. It sits under the cushions, and water falls through it. A teak frame runs around the outside of each module. At the end of each cushion the frame flattens into a ledge for a glass or a book, so seats and small surfaces alternate along the sofa.

The name comes from the Greek word for a close bond between friends, and Dordoni drew the sofa for a group. The backrests are loose, padded, faced in Batyline and polyester belts, and they recline to three positions. An armrest can turn into a backrest or a headrest, so the same module works as a sofa at lunch and a daybed at four.

Philia sits low, about 13 3/4 inches with the cushion, closer to a yacht lounge than to a living room. It also takes room. A three-seater deck module is more than ten feet long, and each module is about 45 inches deep. Give it a wide terrace or a lawn that faces a view.

Basket: a sofa drawn as a grid

RODA Basket comes from the opposite direction. Guillaumier drew it around the meeting of straight lines, with no curve anywhere in the frame. Polyester belts wrap the stainless steel tubes and set up a grid of flat surfaces, and the seat is Batyline, a coated mesh that stays taut and drains.

The system rests on four bases, from about 35 inches square to a deep 53 inch square, and each base takes one of several backs. That is why the piece list runs long: center units, ends with one arm, chaises and a complete three-seater. Modules without a back become benches or wide poufs along a wall or the edge of a pool.

Basket comes in two pairings. A smoke frame goes with gray belts, and a milk frame goes with sand belts. Pick the pairing that suits your paving: smoke reads dark and graphic on pale stone, milk disappears against a white wall.

Two low tables finish the set, about 35 inches square and 53 by 35 inches, standing about 12 inches high with tops in Luna or Farsena stone or Carrara marble.

The same care as a room indoors

Both systems share the parts that let an Italian design sofa stay outside. The cushions use hydro-draining padding, so rain runs through. The frames resist water: teak through its natural oils, stainless steel through its powder coat. You pick the fabric from RODA's list of twenty for Philia, and RODA also shows Philia within its partnership with Missoni, the Italian textile house.

Philia for a deck, Basket for a corner

Choose Philia for a wide, open deck where a group sits facing the water and the teak can go silver gray. Choose Basket for a long narrow terrace, an L around a corner, or a pool edge where a backless bench keeps the view open. Philia reads warm and nautical; Basket reads graphic and architectural.

Mark the doors and the view on a sketch of your terrace and send it with the form below. The reply brings a Philia or Basket layout, a module count and a written price for each.