SNAKE (rett element)

SNAKE is a module system for open spaces. The straight element is the building block, and together with the four other modules you can build seating in any shape: a run along a wall, an L, a wave along a concourse or a full circle standing free in the middle of a room.

We built the first such set for the Ptak shopping centre outside Łódź in Poland, one of the largest retail spaces in the country. Since then we have made it to order in any configuration. SNAKE differs from our other sofas in one respect: the seat height is 40 centimetres, not 43 as in BASIC, PARMA, PARIS or MONACO.

Forty centimetres is a different way of using the piece

A seat height of 43 cm is chosen with the table in mind. The guest sits upright, eats and leaves. SNAKE is 40 cm, and that is lounge height: you sit lower and looser, more often with a glass than with a plate.

That works in lounge areas, waiting rooms, shopping centre concourses and lobbies, that is, where the furniture does not stand at a dining table. If you are planning a restaurant room with tables, take a sofa with the seat at 43 cm.

How the system works

The straight element we price per linear metre, because you decide the length yourself. The other modules have a fixed size and go per piece.

Measurements

Every module in the system has the same seat height and the same depth, so they line up whatever order you set them in.

A piece for spaces without walls

A sofa is made to stand against a wall. SNAKE needs none, because it stands free and closes itself: in a circle, a wave or an island in the middle of the room.

That opens uses an ordinary sofa does not cover. Shopping centre concourses, hotel lobbies, waiting areas, showrooms, offices, cinema foyers and clinics. Everywhere the seating has to stand on its own, and often to order the movement around it as well. The low seat of forty centimetres suits such places better than dining height.

The first set of this kind we made for the Ptak shopping centre outside Łódź in Poland, and that is where we found out how far the system can be stretched. A retail concourse of that size is also the hardest test for a piece like this: the traffic lasts all day, the seats stand free with no wall behind them, and the composition has to order the space, not just fill it.

For designers: a system that needs no technical drawing

With a sofa sewn to measure, the design office sends us a layout, we return a proposal for the segments, and then comes approval and production. With SNAKE that step looks different, because you assemble the shape from blocks with known measurements.

It is enough to count how many metres of straight element, how many corners, how many quarter curves and how many ottomans the desired shape needs. The quotation follows directly from that list, and the customer sees it before anything goes into production.

When a module system beats a sofa made to measure

A sofa made to measure is built for one particular layout. When the room changes, the piece stays as it was.

SNAKE can be rearranged. The same set of modules forms a different composition when you move zones, divide the space in a new way or move to another venue. You are buying flexibility instead of a perfect fit to one layout.

In return, you assemble the shape from ready made blocks. In a room with a skewed angle or a curved wall, a sofa sewn to measure fills the space more precisely.

Construction, fabric and lead time

A simple rounded shape and a stable construction work where the traffic is heavy: shopping centres, restaurants and hotels. Foam meant for continuous use, the same in every module in the system.

Fabric for serving venues has, with us, at least 40 000 Martindale, and most of the range sits above 100 000. Production to measure takes roughly four to six weeks, counted from the moment payment is registered: 968 27 586.