Sititaly

Advice, trends and news
on the world of seating

Until now, whenever a client asked, “How long does this chair last?”, the answer was always: “It depends.”
With IDA Lounge, everything changes. You are no longer offering a product destined to wear out over time, but a seating solution designed to renew itself.

IDA Lounge has been conceived and engineered so that every component subject to wear can be separated and replaced directly by the end user, without involving you and without the need to move the entire chair.

While other catalogues on your desk offer products with a limited lifespan, IDA Lounge allows you to shift the conversation onto entirely different ground. And the best part is that you can support it with facts, data and international recognition.

Ecodesign as a distinctive value

When presenting IDA Lounge to an architect or procurement manager, you are offering something few catalogues can match: an armchair developed according to genuine eco-design principles, supported by verifiable construction choices.

The shell is made from rigid polyurethane BIO 7R, a fully reusable mono-material solution, and is also available in BIO 20R and soon in BIO 30R versions. The upholstery is removable, while the padding can be separated from the supporting structure.

The shape of the shell itself guarantees mechanical resistance through an integrated joint system, eliminating the need for structural adhesives.

At Interzum 2025, this approach received the High Product Quality Award, recognising the solidity and credibility of the project. For you, this means being able to present a technically sound and fully documented story, backed by tangible evidence.

The end user renews the chair, you reduce after-sales support

The real commercial strength of IDA Lounge lies in what happens after the sale — or rather, in what does not happen.

The upholstery has been designed to be replaced directly by the user through a dedicated renewal kit. Components subject to wear, such as fabric and flexible elements, can be dismantled and replaced without specialist intervention, as the construction system makes every part accessible without damaging the underlying structure.

For the customer, this means independent maintenance and reduced costs. For you, it means fewer after-sales requests and less reverse logistics.

This is an economic advantage that multiplies with every piece installed in hotels, offices or waiting areas.

Sustainability that clients immediately understand

IDA Lounge has never entered the disposable circuit.
When a traditional armchair wears out, the structure underneath — often still perfectly functional — frequently ends up in landfill together with the upholstery, simply because the components are glued together and cannot be separated.

With IDA Lounge, the opposite happens.

The rigid shell remains in service for years, while only the genuinely worn components are replaced. This means fewer new parts need to be produced and fewer complete armchairs need to be transported back and forth for reupholstering.

The shell itself enters a circular recycling chain, and every renewal extends the product’s lifespan without generating unnecessary waste.

For professionals working in contract and hospitality sectors, where environmental awareness increasingly influences purchasing decisions, this becomes a concrete and valuable argument to include in any proposal.

An armchair that anticipates the direction of the market

From 2029 onwards, the European ESPR regulation will introduce mandatory requirements regarding repairability, component separability and bio-based content for furniture products.

IDA Lounge already meets these criteria because it has been developed through a design approach centred on total material separability and the long-term durability of the supporting structure.

Having a product in your catalogue that is already aligned with future regulations gives you a tangible competitive advantage, particularly in projects with medium- to long-term planning horizons.

It is something you can already include in your proposals today — and within a few years, it will become a requirement for everyone. Those who move first will lead the market.

Thirty years of Sititaly design besign IDA Lounge

IDA Lounge is not the result of adapting to current trends. It is the outcome of a precise question we asked ourselves from the very beginning: how do you create an armchair that the market will not eventually force people to throw away?

The answer lies in our expertise in moulded polyurethane, developed through more than thirty years of work focused on material separability and the durability of load-bearing structures.

Every technical choice behind IDA Lounge — from the integrated joint system to the mono-material shell — comes directly from our experience in the production of contract seating.

If you would like to understand how this armchair can strengthen your offering and provide you with stronger arguments when speaking to clients, let’s talk about it.

We can help you build a tailored proposal designed specifically for your market.

You have often heard us talk about the advantages that polyurethane offers in seats’ construction.

Today, however, we want to offer you the point of view of a designer, the professional who deals with imagining products before they even come to life.

Architect Giovanni Ingignoli, the designer who has collaborated with Sititaly in the realization of multiple projects, told us during a meeting how polyurethane is a material capable of stimulating creativity.

The possibility offered by polyurethane of combining the use of rigid and flexible allows to achieve innovative results, favoring comfort.

Contact us for a personalized Sit With Us consultation: you will be able to see firsthand what can be achieved with this innovative and sustainable material and find the right inspiration to design the solution best suited to your needs.

When we talk about sustainable seating, one fundamental aspect is often overlooked: the ability to disassemble products at the end of their lifecycle.

Recycling traditional chairs is far more complex than it may seem. The different materials involved and the way components are assembled make separation processes slow, costly, and ultimately unsustainable.

Sititaly’s approach challenges this logic.

By using structural rigid polyurethane, we eliminate the need for metal frames and permanent bonding, simplifying both assembly and disassembly.

This allows us to create seating solutions that are more durable, designed for easy recycling, and with a significantly reduced environmental impact.

Looking to develop a truly sustainable collection—without compromising on comfort and design?

With Sit With Us, we collaborate with companies and designers to create seating solutions conceived from the outset to respect the planet.

Book your free consultation today and let’s start shaping the future of sustainable design together.

From 2029 on, the European seating market will be regulated by legislation that introduces stringent requirements for durability, repairability and recyclability. The ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation), approved by the European Commission in July 2024, represents one of the pillarsof the Green Deal of the Circular Economy Action Plan.

The furniture field is among the priorities of the first Working Plan 2025-2030. According to the official timeline, the specific delegated regulation will be adopted in 2028, while effective implementation – that is, compliance for products placed on themarket – will start in 2029.

ESPR extends the scope of the previous Ecodesign Directive (2009/125/EC), which was limited to energy-related products. It now covers virtually all physical goods sold in the European Union, with a few exceptions regulated separately (foods, drugs, medical products).

The stated goal is twofold: to reduce the environmental impact ofproductsthroughout their life cycle and accelerate the transition towards a circular economy. For the furniture sector, this translates into five main areas of intervention.

The five pillars of compliance

1. Durability and repairability

Products should be designed to withstand time and to allow routine maintenance. The legislation aims to counter planned obsolescence and promote business models based on product longevity.

2. Recycled or bio-based content

The requirement for recycled or renewable material in materials such as polyurethane is estimated to be around 30%. Companies that rely exclusively on virgin fossil fuels will need to rethink their supply chains.

3. Separability of components

To enable selective recycling at the end of life, the design should facilitate the disassembly of different parts such as structure, padding, and cladding. Permanent assemblies with structural adhesives will no longer be compatible with the new standards.

4. Digital Product Passport (DPP)

Each product will be equipped with a “digital passport” containing information on material composition, origin, environmental impact, repair instructions and end-of-life. The system will ensure full traceability along the supply chain.

5. Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM)

To participate in public tenders -contract, hospitality, office sectors – it will be mandatory todemonstrate compliance with CAM. Those who do not meet these criteria will automatically be excluded from the award procedures.

What happens to those who are not ready

The impact of legislation will not be uniform. Companies that already operate with circular logic will have an immediate competitive advantage. Those who continue to design according to linear models (production-use-disposal) will face significant adjustment costs.

The market surveillance authorities of the Member States will have the power to block the marketing of non-compliantproducts, to order recall and to impose sanctions. The legislation also provides for transparency obligations: companies will have to disclose the quantities of unsold products destroyed and the reasons.

For non-EU producers exporting to the EU market, the same rules will be applied without exception. The Commission has stated that it will carefully assess the implications for trading partners, but confirmed that there will be no exemptions.

How did Sititaly anticipate 2029?

At Sititaly, we have been operating in accordance with the principles that will become mandatory in 2029. Our decision to focus on molded polyurethane seats comes from the belief that this material, when combined with design intelligence, offers the needed attributes for a circular model: monomateriality, separability, durability, and repairability.

Take our IDA Lounge as an example. It has been designed with a completely reusable rigid polyurethane BIO 7R shell, a removable coating system without the use of glues, and a component that the end consumer can replace independently. This approach corresponds exactly to what ESPR requires in terms of design for disassembly and circular economy.

In terms of materials, we already supply bio-based polyurethane in different percentages: 7R as standard, 20R on request, and30R will be also available soon, anticipating future regulatory requirements. In parallel, we are working on LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) certifications for each of our product lines, with the aim of obtaining complete EPDs (Environmental Product Declaration) that guarantee maximum transparency on environmental impact.

We are not adapting to a regulation. We are building products that will be relevant and competitive when that legislation is fully in place.

Design today to sell tomorrow

There are three years left to prepare. Those who can anticipate will transform a constraint into an advantage. Those who wait risk being out of business.

We at Sititaly are ready to accompany you on this journey. Through our Sit With Us service, we support you in the co-design of chairs that already meet ESPR requirements: from concept stage to 3D mathematics, from prototyping to industrial production.

Contact us to design tomorrow’s session together.

Imagine this situation: you see a beautiful chair right in front of you, you walk over, sit down and… it’s definitely more uncomfortable than it looked.

The comfort of a seat is a matter of well-being, not just aesthetics: to achieve truly comfortable seating, every design choice must be carefully studied in detail.

In the design process, from the shape of the body and the choice of materials are essential factors in ensuring comfort, so it’s not enough to simply add soft padding to a poorly made structure.

At Sititaly, we study and refine every smallest detail of your seating, starting with the use of polyurethane, to guarantee the right balance between support and comfort.

Contact us for a personalized consultation: thanks to our Sit With Us approach, you can ask us any questions you like to learn more about seating comfort and ensure a truly comfortable result.

You have a seating collection in mind. The concept works, the design convinces you… but when you start thinking about materials, production, costs and feasibility, everything becomes more complicated.

Yet there is a way to approach this journey with greater clarity, less waste and simpler decisions: a method born from hands-on experience, working closely with those who every day turn concepts into market-ready seating solutions.

Turning an idea into a seating collection means making the right technical decisions from the very beginning, avoiding costly or difficult-to-produce solutions, and designing with an industrial mindset.

At Sititaly, thanks to over 30 years of experience, we support designers and companies at every stage of the project: from prototyping and material selection to production and finishing.

Do you have an idea for a seating collection and want to understand how to turn it into reality, without wasting time and energy on the wrong choices?

Sit With Us is the starting point: a personalized consultation where we analyze your idea and begin building the most suitable solutions to make it concrete, efficient and ready for the market.