The Future Perfect presented the US debut of Marta Sala Éditions Collections 1 and 2, a two-part series of furniture, lighting and accessories designed in conjunction with Rome, Italy-based architecture firm Lazzarini & Pickering for Marta Sala. Available exclusively through The Future Perfect’s New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles locations and website, the exhibition marks the first time that Marta Sala’s eponymous product line will be available for purchase in the United States. Opening at The Future Perfect in New York on March 8, 2016, the exhibition showcases the intelligent design and high quality craftsmanship imbued in the collection.

Created in 2015 by Italian design luminary and entrepreneur Marta Sala, Marta Sala Éditions embraces the clean simplicity of mid-century Italian design with a contemporary mindset. Architects Claudio Lazzarini and Carl Pickering are the first designers in what Sala hopes will be a series of architect collaborations for Marta Sala. The Marta Sala Éditions collections feature pieces with versatile modularity and technologically advanced fabrics, which mingle functionality and limitless possibilities for use.

“I have long admired Marta Sala’s work and creative vision,” said David Alhadeff, founder of The Future Perfect. “Her debut collections with Lazzarini and Pickering offer thoughtful, beautifully constructed furniture pieces that are both functional and elegant. I’m honored to be the first to carry the designs in the US.”

Marta Sala’s Éditions is a line of furniture, objects and lighting created in collaboration with leading architects and designers. For the Italian enterprise, which was founded in 2015, Sala has tapped Rome-based architectural studio Lazzarini & Pickering as chief designers for two concurrent collections.

In many respects, Sala’s eponymous project is the product of a lifetime immersed in Italy’s rich legacy of design and architecture. In 1947, her mother Maria Teresa Tosi co-founded iconic furniture company Azucena with her uncle, the architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni and Ignazio Gardella, two of the country’s most prominent modern architects. In recent years, the company – known for its sleekly elegant – and increasingly collectible – furnishings was helmed by Sala and her sister Anna.

Like her famous uncle, Sala believes that architecture is the foundation of all design, and furniture is much like a dialogue. Claudio Lazzarini and Carl Pickering, who share this same vision, were the perfect choice for the first two collections, which include seating, tables, lighting and several home objects. In the spirit of iconic Italian design, the range marries modernist lines with sumptuous details, a strong sense of color and unexpected materials. It’s a hybrid that Sala calls: The secret soul of useful things.

Given her background Sala functions as the curator and connector, realizing the brief of the architects and finding the right craftspeople to create the world-class pieces. “We are very spoilt around Milan,” Sala says. “We have this unique combination between handcraft and technical support that gives an incredibly high standard of quality but is still full of soul due to the human application on each piece. I personally deal with production because I know exactly what I want and how to optimize the knowledge of the architects and craftsmen.”

Many of the collection’s pieces are tailor-made to contemporary life, some combining multiple functions in a single piece. In this spirit, a lamp does triple duty as a screen and table. Seating is modular and adaptable, suitable to a range of commercial and residential environments. “Before design used to instruct people how to sit, stand and eat. Now we have to offer a product that is useful and modular and able to answer different needs and spaces,” says Sala. The pieces echo the ethos of Sala’s uncle Caccia Dominioni, who saw design, architectural and urban planning as an integrated whole. According to Sala, this approach “gives each piece a unique solution and strength.”