B&B Italia Alanda ’18 Glass Coffee Table

Manufacturer: B&B Italia  |  Designer: Paolo Piva, 1980

An Object With Its Own Gravity

The Alanda arrived at the start of the 1980s and immediately became one of the defining objects of that decade — a period of bold, architectural thinking in furniture design, where pieces were expected to hold their own in a room rather than recede into it. Forty years on, it remains one of the most sought-after vintage references in Italian design, and one of the few pieces from that era that has aged without compromise.

The structure is the design. A cluster of inverted steel pyramids forms a geodetic frame that functions simultaneously as pedestal, support, and sculpture. Paolo Piva described it as a structure that entraps and amplifies energy — and there is something to that. The Alanda does not simply hold a glass top. It makes the glass top feel inevitable.

The Design Behind It

Paolo Piva was an architect before he was a furniture designer, and the Alanda reflects that. The pyramidal substructure is a direct reference to geodetic architecture — the kind of structural thinking that was preoccupying architects in the late 1970s, translated here into something domestic and precise. The Alanda '18 is a faithful reissue, offered in two sizes with a painted steel rod structure and glass top in Extra Light or Smoky glass.

Available Configurations

• 120 × 120cm — Extra Light glass
• 120 × 120cm — Smoky glass
• 180 × 120cm — Extra Light glass
• 180 × 120cm — Smoky glass