GRADAS
Categories
Product Design, User Experience, Form giving
Client
UNS x Sancal
Project
Gradas
Services
Product Design Form Giving
Year
2026
Role
A contract furniture project developed at UNS (UNStudio) for the Spanish manufacturer Sancal, under the direction of Ben van Berkel. My involvement started at the acquisition stage, where I helped shape the collaboration with Sancal and frame the opportunity for the brand. I then led much of the concept design phase, exploring how a single soft prism could grow into a modular seating system for workplaces, hospitality venues and cultural spaces.
Role
A contract furniture project developed at UNS (UNStudio) for the Spanish manufacturer Sancal, under the direction of Ben van Berkel. My involvement started at the acquisition stage, where I helped shape the collaboration with Sancal and frame the opportunity for the brand. I then led much of the concept design phase, exploring how a single soft prism could grow into a modular seating system for workplaces, hospitality venues and cultural spaces.
Design Vision
Gradas, Spanish for “steps”, started from a simple belief: contract furniture can be playful and still be useful. In public plazas and urban grandstands, people sit on steps, ledges and edges in ways no one designed for. They perch, lean, face each other, and end up talking to strangers. The brief became a question: what if a sofa could bring that same informal, social energy indoors?
The answer was a family of soft prisms that interlock into stepped arrangements. Gradas S is a single armchair, Gradas M is a three-seater suited to waiting areas, and Gradas XXL is a multi-level landscape with an almost architectural presence. Because the seat heights vary and the pieces are open on all sides, there is no single right way to sit. Some people sit side by side, others sit back to back, and others sit one level above the person they are talking to. In Ben van Berkel’s words, “the stepped form is not decorative; it genuinely changes how people sit.” By breaking the usual front-facing sofa layout, Gradas turns a place to wait into a place to meet.
Design Vision
Gradas, Spanish for “steps”, started from a simple belief: contract furniture can be playful and still be useful. In public plazas and urban grandstands, people sit on steps, ledges and edges in ways no one designed for. They perch, lean, face each other, and end up talking to strangers. The brief became a question: what if a sofa could bring that same informal, social energy indoors?
The answer was a family of soft prisms that interlock into stepped arrangements. Gradas S is a single armchair, Gradas M is a three-seater suited to waiting areas, and Gradas XXL is a multi-level landscape with an almost architectural presence. Because the seat heights vary and the pieces are open on all sides, there is no single right way to sit. Some people sit side by side, others sit back to back, and others sit one level above the person they are talking to. In Ben van Berkel’s words, “the stepped form is not decorative; it genuinely changes how people sit.” By breaking the usual front-facing sofa layout, Gradas turns a place to wait into a place to meet.
Gradas launched at 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen in June 2026, in a joint exhibition with Sancal and BYBORRE, who developed three custom knitted textiles for the collection: Rovin, Eirene and Etaney.
The project has been featured in Interior Daily, Parametric Architecture, Stylepark, CC Magazine and on the UNStudio website.
Gradas launched at 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen in June 2026, in a joint exhibition with Sancal and BYBORRE, who developed three custom knitted textiles for the collection: Rovin, Eirene and Etaney.
The project has been featured in Interior Daily, Parametric Architecture, Stylepark, CC Magazine and on the UNStudio website.
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