Design file: Toan Nguyen

French designer Toan Nguyen spent 10 years working side by side with renowned furniture and industrial designer Antonio Citterio before starting his own practice in Milan, Italy, in 2008.

"The goal was to cancel the barrier between indoor and outdoor. It was important to me that if you bring this furniture inside, it wouldn't look strange, because it has the same comfort, softness and ergonomy of an indoor sofa. We used an acrylic fabric that is a pure outdoor fabric but doesn't have that synthetic feel that isn't nice to touch. When you weave you put a lot of tension on the frame and the volume can grow a lot. We wanted to reduce the thickness of the parts."

"It has the same spirit of lightness and comfort and sophistication that MU has. The legs are completely die-cast, which gives it a natural, simple and slim shape."

"[When buying] an indoor sofa you usually have a whole range of choice in colours and fabrics. With a woven sofa you only have the standard colour, so it was important for me to provide a choice between dark and light, but be warm and close to nature. I didn't want to be influenced by fashionable colours; buying a sofa is not for a season - it's for many years."

"With MU, I wanted to have something that would work for a small city terrace and a big poolside area with many people around."

"I've just moved [and am renovating a house with a garden]. I live in Milan and it's a city without a lot of green, not a lot of parks, but I think it's important for the kids to not be indoors all the time. Balconies are common in Milan but for me it's not enough."