Supaform Reimagines the Conversation Pit for 2021

The conversation pit continues to resurface every few years whenever modern reinterpretations appear on the big screen or in high-end architecture. The 2025 Fantastic Four film notably featured a dreamy powder blue version, while Kelly Wearstler and Masastudio designed a plush gray iteration in a California home in 2023. Additionally, the Paulin Paulin Paulin seating system frequently pops up in music videos and fashionable events, despite the style's fluctuating popularity over the decades.

Maxim Shcherbakov of the Paris-based design studio Supaform discusses Transit Encounters and the modern revival of conversation pits. The installation consists of plush, velvet green cushions arranged around a central low-to-the-ground table equipped with a built-in turntable system.

This design makes distinct aesthetic departures from its mid-century inspiration by being positioned above ground instead of recessed into the floor. Its rigid cream-colored frame also evokes the retro-futurism of the 1980s PC era. Furthermore, the flexible seating arrangements characteristic of traditional pits are achieved here through varying seat heights, sloped backs, handlebars, and fully upholstered floors.

Transit Encounters was exhibited at ALCOVA during Milan Design Week 2026 as part of designboom's MODES OF HABITATION chapter, which explores how living spaces reshape the ways people inhabit and share domestic environments together.

Source: designboom