The iconic 1970s Mah Jong sofa seems to be on Charli XCX's wish list. In her newly-released song, 'Card Declined', her shopping list includes 'a handbag', 'a personality', 'a whole new life' as well as the Roche Bobois, hippy-coded sofa.
Mah Jong sofa: a 1970s seating landscape
A wide composition of the Mah Jong sofa upholstered by Missoni, photographed at the Roche Bobois West Hollywood showroom
The story of the Mah Jong sofa started from an idea of German designer, painter, and sculptor Hans Hopfer, generally recognised for inventing the concept of a 'seating landscape'. His first designs, created in the 1960s for furniture company Mobiliar-Basar, included the Bausystem (1965), a streamlined sofa bed design, and the Mobiliante (1967), a unique piece that incorporated sofa, love seat and ottoman. Both concepts were based on an idea of essential forms, functionality and responding to the needs of modern life.
This experience led him to create the Mah Jong sofa, for French furniture company Roche Bobois, in 1971. A fully modular, ever-changing seating system, the Mah Jong sofa was conceived to adapt to the constant evolution of domestic lifestyles. Bohemian in its execution and based on comfort, durability and flexibility, the Mah Jong is based on a system of cushions upholstered in bold textiles; over the years, the sofa has been dressed by the likes of Kenzo Takada, Missoni and Sonia Rykiel.
For Hopfer, the creation of the Mah Jong sofa coincided with the birth of his first child and a pivot towards thinking about a piece of furniture that would serve the life of a family. Initially dubbed 'The Forever Sofa', a name that is also a mission statement for a design piece, it was later renamed after the Chinese tile game its forms closely resemble. The design of the sofa is based on pure modularity, with a corner, back and flat bottom section, which users can combine into virtually infinite compositions.
At the time of its creation, it was an innovative idea to give people the agency to design their own sofa and living space through a series of pieces that could be configured in formats that best suit their users' needs. While the earlier models featured a more streamlined cushion design, over the years the sofa evolved with visible seams and irregular edges, looking like a refined DIY composition and enhancing its mission. Added platforms and outdoor versions (as well as adjustable backs) have expanded the design's scope within the home.
Defined by bold patterns that are often found in mix-and-match compositions and definitely better suited to large spaces, where compositions can truly bring to life its creator's original idea, it is undeniable that the Mah Jong sofa makes for an exciting shopping trip indeed.