Plisse Block: The Glass Sofa Where Fashion Meets Furniture Design
Some sofas are made to be sat on. Others are made to stop you in your tracks. The Plisse Block, designed by Italian designer Luca Ricci for Fivefourfive, belongs firmly in the second category, though it promises plenty of comfort too.
A Sofa Born From a Store Opening
To mark the opening of the new Fivefourfive store in Milan, Ricci created the Plisse Block as a custom centrepiece for the space. It is not a mass-produced piece you can add to the cart. It is a design object conceived to define the identity of the store itself, part sculpture, part furniture, entirely unforgettable.
Glass, Texture, and the Art of Illusion
The sofa’s structure is built from two layers of thick glass. The inner layer is smooth and serves as the supporting framework. The outer layer is textured, a rippled, pliss surface that wraps around the entire form. This is where the magic happens: the textured glass breaks and fragments whatever it reflects, turning the sofa into a living visual experience that shifts with the light and the angle from which you view it.
The name “Plisse” directly references the world of fashion and pleated fabrics. That concept is translated into the rippled glass surface, which lets light pass through while simultaneously distorting and transforming its surroundings. Depending on the time of day and where you are standing, the Plisse Block looks like a completely different piece of furniture.
Three Blocks, One Harmonious Whole
The modular design is composed of three separate pieces: two side modules and one central segment. Together they form a balanced, cohesive silhouette. The modular approach also allows for flexibility in how the piece is arranged within a room, while the thickness of the glass ensures both strength and stability.
Where Hard Meets Soft
Six plush-covered cushions, three rectangular seat cushions and three cylindrical backrests, introduce a sophisticated contrast to the glass structure. The velvet softness against the rigid transparency creates a dialogue between solidity and comfort, between cold material and warm invitation. This tension is what gives the sofa its almost living quality.
A Nod to Le Corbusier
The proportions of the Plisse Block are inspired by a historical sketch by Le Corbusier, specifically the geometry of his iconic LC2 sofa. Ricci reinterpreted those classic forms through a contemporary lens, preserving the formal balance while completely reinventing the materials and the design approach. The result honours modernist heritage while feeling entirely of the moment.
My opinion
Most sofas are forgettable. The Plisse Block made me actually stop and look at one, which doesn’t happen often.
It raises a question worth sitting with “should furniture dissolve into a room, or redefine the logic of it?” There’s no right answer. But the choice says more about how you want to live than any paint color or floor plan ever will.
Written by Suzu Haruhi. Featured image: Plisse Block sofa by Luca Ricci for Fivefourfive. Photo credit: Fivefourfive.