The Story Behind the Terrazza Sofa's Iconic Design

The Story Behind the Terrazza Sofa's Iconic Design

Swiss designer Ubald Klug was known for taking on unconventional projects. There was his so-called bed for working, a prefab housing prototype, a study for the cockpit of a French airline. So, in the early 1970s, when Klug presented the furniture­maker de Sede with a fresh idea, it’s no surprise that he put forth something groundbreaking, pun intended—a sofa that resembled a pile of earth.

“He had the idea to produce a kind of mountain,” explains Willi Glaeser, his onetime collaborator. “In the Alps the cows walk around leaving horizontal terraces. You see these patterns in this sofa.” Not every critic was smitten: The New Yorker called it “a monstrous thing.” Dubbed Terrazza, Klug’s sofa is composed of seven graduated leather-wrapped cushions set on a rectangular base. “They’re like dominoes,” designer Kelly Wearstler says of the topography, which can be expanded ad infinitum. “You can have a 50- or 60-foot-long sofa if you want.”

The design became synonymous with 1970s glam—Mick Jagger was famously snapped lounging atop a Terrazza, and a pair showed up in the sci-fi flick Logan’s Run. Though Klug isn’t exactly a household name, a persistent nostalgia for disco days has kept his most famous creation au courant. Designers such as Wearstler, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, and Sally Breer snag Terrazzas secondhand (a single generally sells for less than $5,000 at auction) or pick up new models from de Sede (from $12,170). “I purchased it because I loved the way it looked,” says Swiss designer Yves Béhar, who lives with two in San Francisco, adding, “It’s the most comfortable thing in my home.”

Terrazza also telegraphs a transgressive allure. “They have this cheeky, orgy vibe and encourage all these weird ways of sitting,” says designer Adam Charlap Hyman, who recently placed four in an L.A. bachelor pad. “It’s like something from outer space landed in your living room.”