It is the furniture that most identifies the lifestyle of its owner and is the emblem of living, especially in the history of the second half of the 20th century.

The great economic upswing following the Second World War led to a substantial relocation of families to larger cities in search of work and a better life. In the 1960s, therefore, houses necessarily decreased in size and, consequently, so did the needs of those living in them. Lifestyles changed and the market demanded multifunctional and transformable products to remodel space. Architects and designers, such as Cini Boeri, are taking up the challenge by thinking of modern sofas for strictly personal use and in total autonomy. He adds wheels to the furniture, creates elements that can be combined to create living areas that transform into beds for the night, upholstered in fabrics that are easy to wash and replace, in the name of practicality.

Other designers, such as Vico Magistretti, reflect instead on the act of sitting down: it is not only the moment that accompanies a conversation, but also a phase of relaxation from semi-reclining, with backrests that tilt to relax in front of the TV, the new nerve centre of the home. The transformation of elements, as well as the encouragement to combine them and experiment with new forms of use and occupation of the home, are characteristics that are common to all the furniture of the so-called Radical period of Italian design, which saw the birth of companies such as Gufram, Poltronova and the C&B Research Centre (now B&B Italia), whose products are still the emblem of multifunctional furniture.

Modularity is a theme widely investigated in the design of furniture in the 1970s, not only because it puts the user at the centre as an active subject in the composition of his or her own space, but also because the product can adapt and integrate over the years according to people's homes and needs. This is how the large modular systems were born: in the case of seats and sofas, corner end units, dormeuses, coffee tables and multifunctional armrests were added to the basic modules, reaching as many as fifty elements. Let us look at some iconic models that have made design history.

With the Radical movement, the challenge of modularity and combination of elements was embraced from the outset. The design of the Safari sofa by the Archizoom collective in 1968 envisages a multiple seat with the profile of the backrest configured in a series of waves; in the central void, accessed through a gap, one gathers as in a sort of tribal ritual. The furniture consists of four pieces of two different types (two armchair modules and two sofa modules). The Safari sofa is put into production for the first time by Poltronova and the experimental fibreglass technique is used for the structure. For the seat and backrest upholstery, the designers choose a printed animalier fabric with a leopard print pattern. The same motif is used for the polyurethane foam carpet placed between the seats. The choice of the leopard animalier had a cultured reference to the work Bedroom ensemble (1963) by Claes Oldenburg, master of English Pop Art, and his later Leopard chair, but also to a kitsch taste adopted by the group as a denunciation of the need for form to follow function.

In the same year, one of the most iconic products of the Superstudio group, the Bazaar sofa, was put into production by Giovanetti: a modular fibreglass armchair, covered in coloured synthetic fabric, almost a carpet, aimed at creating an environment within an environment, a partially delimited area reserved for convivial discussion. The Bazaar is designed to accommodate both the individual and the group, with high backs that protect from the outside while isolating in a comfortable environment for discussion and sharing. Impossible to ignore and visionary in form, the Bazaar is a domestic sculpture that surprises and provokes reflection in the observer.

It is November 1969, and Tobia and Afra Scarpa receive an urgent call from furniture designer Cesare Cassina: time is short, but Carlo and his wife are asked to propose a new radical sofa in time for the Cologne Fair in January. Thus Soriana was born, a piece of polyurethane foam, wrapped in leather and tightened in the middle by a polished metal belt. "The leather covering was not meant to be taut," Scarpa later explains, "but to look like a soft, crumpled fabric curled around this soft mass and held together by a sort of giant metal spring. Production of the object ceased in 1982, but ever since designers such as Kelly Wearstler and Rodman Primack started asking for vintage models, Cassina decided to reintroduce the design piece into the company's production.

Often nicknamed the "Bellini Sofa" for its creator Mario Bellini, it is named Camaleonda after the union of two Italian words for "chameleon", the animal capable of adapting to its environment par excellence, and "wave" for its soft shapes. The neologism captures the infinitely adaptable nature of the sofa system that Bellini designed for B&B Italia in 1970, in which fabric-covered polyurethane modules snap together using simple snap hooks to create infinite configurations of pouf armchairs and daybeds. Production ceased in 1979, but the cyclical nature of fashion has allowed this sofa to achieve "superstar" status in recent years when some vintage models appeared in the homes of Mike D (founding member of the American band Beastie Boy), Athena Calderone and Chrissy Teigen. B&B Italia decided, therefore, to reintroduce it into permanent production using only recycled or recyclable materials.

In the same year and with the same principle of combinable elements, Bellini designed another sofa that won him the Compasso d'Oro: the model Amanta. A piece of furniture composed by modules that, taken individually, act as comfortable upholstered armchairs with a fibreglass structure, but combined together, by means of plastic connecting straps, give shape to a large sofa.

In 1971, Hans Hopfer created the Lounge Sofa for Roche Bobois, an infinitely modular seating system in which three simple cushion elements can be combined or stacked into infinite solutions: an armchair, a sofa, a bed or even an entire living room. As a simple composition of rectangular units, the sofa soon earned the catchy nickname 'Mah Jong Sofa', a reference to the game of Chinese tiles. Over the years, the design, which is still sold by Roche Bobois, has appeared in countless homes, and cushions have been upholstered in fabrics by Kenzo, Missoni Home and Jean Paul Gaultier.

Numerous contemporary companies have been inspired by these iconic designs, but rarely achieving their level of research in aesthetics and refinement of form. When vintage charm meets furniture functionality, timeless success is assured.