Mole Chair by Sergio Rodrigues. Brazil. Eternity Design Collections

Mole Chair by Sergio Rodrigues. Another Mole Chair with Foot Stool also available.

Sergio Rodrigues is credited as the father of modern design in Brazil for having introduced a uniquely Brazilian formal vocabulary with the Mole Armchair, so named for its relaxed, comfortable, soft appearance, summarized by the word “mole” in Portuguese. The design originated with a 1957 commission for the photographer Otto Stupakoff, who asked Rodrigues for a “spread-out” sofa for his studio. The design sat in Rodrigues’ company OCA showroom window on the Praça General Osório in Ipanema for years without many commissions or local interest until the chair was prized and subsequently manufactured in Italy for European consumption. It has become an icon of Brazilian modern design internationally due to winning first prize in the IV Concorso Internazionale del Mobile in Cantu, Italy in 1961, where Arne Jacobsen proclaimed it as communicating the unique characteristics of Brazilian culture.