Official supplier photography.

Supplier archive photography · © Varaschin

In the room

01 / 08

Babylon Armchair — Varaschin archive photograph

Supplier archive photography · © Varaschin

babylon by Varaschin

Babylon Armchair

Name: Babylon Armchair
Brand: Varaschin
SKU: 1740

dining chairs & armchairs · aluminium · SKU 1740

When we approached this project we actually had a clear idea, not about the shape but about its function. Christopher and I love spending summer nights looking at the stars, maybe because this reminds us about sailing nights. The brief from which we started was that of a sofa to observe the sky during starry nights.

Giopato & Coombes on the BABYLON collection as a whole — not a description of this piece.

Materialaluminium

teakaluminiumfabricmetalsolid woodsteel

Colour charts as printed — © Varaschin. Ask the desk for the current season’s card.

As printed92 88 75 15 30

Custom cushionsMade to order for this frame, in your chosen fabric — commission cushions, or read Cushions & comfort below.

No finish chosen yet. Pick one above and it is kept with the piece — through the shortlist, the workspace schedule and the export.

Request technical sheet Enquire

Full specification8 sections

Material family: aluminium
Fabric: cat. B - C.O.M. (ml 2,80 /h 1,40)
Customer's own material: Not accepted on this piece
Typology, as supplied: Armchair

The BABYLON collection, in the book

8 pieces across 9 spreads (reader pp. 127–135). Credited to Giopato & Coombes.

The book prints one finish system for the whole range — 31 finishes across 12 printed families.

This is the house palette, keyed to the range rather than to this piece: it is what the book says the collections can be finished in, not a stock list. Which finish this piece is built in is confirmed on the technical sheet. Choose here and the choice stays with the piece — it travels to your shortlist, the workspace schedule and its export.

Frame finish

48 · 3 printed documents · 13 printed pages

The maker's frame and leg finishes — 48 across 3 printed families.

LACCATI25

METALLI17

Weave

17 · 2 printed documents · 5 printed pages

The woven rope, printed INTRECCI — 17 colourways. A woven piece carries a rope colour AND a frame finish, and they are specified separately.

INTRECCI17

Seat fabric

412 · 5 printed documents · 82 printed pages

The maker's cloth library — 412 colours across 53 printed ranges. Choose one and it is kept with the piece, through the shortlist, the workspace schedule and the export.

Seat fabric412

ABACO15

AFRICA1

ALVEARE8

ANTIGUA6

BATYLINE2

CANVAS15

COLONIALE12

CRISP12

DALÌ16

DUNE8

FIAMMATO4

GAIA8

ICARUS19

INTARSIO3

JAZZ7

JUNGLE4

LINEAR3

LINOSA2

LOPEZ12

LUNA9

MADRAS8

MARINE12

MAYA9

MEDLEY16

MELANGE6

NOBEL8

OSCAR4

PANAMA19

PARTY4

PASHMINA9

PASTEL7

PELLE12

PELLE NABUK4

PELLE TEXTURE4

PERNICE8

PIPER12

PIXEL3

POP9

PURALANA14

PUROLINO10

ROMBO6

SOLEY6

SPIGATO6

SPUGNA4

STRIPES15

SUN7

TRICOT4

VEGETAL11

VOGUE5

Printed colours are approximate — specify against a physical sample. Swatches above are renders of the maker’s own printed cells — 560 of 615 published options carry one.

cinque colori dell'intreccio EMMA CROSS / EMMA CROSS weave, 5 colours
corda intreccio EMMA, due toni / EMMA cords, two standard tones
6 colori della struttura EMMA SUNSCREEN / 6 colours of the EMMA SUNSCREEN structure
colorazioni bianco e nero TIBIDABO / TIBIDABO black and white colorings
struttura bianco / WHITE STRUCTURE
struttura grigio seta / SILK GREY STRUCTURE
struttura grigio / GREY STRUCTURE
alluminio verniciato bianco / white powder-coated aluminium
GRIGIO / GREY
TAUPE / TAUPE
BRONZO / BRONZE
BEIGE/BIANCO / BEIGE-WHITE
GRIGIO / GREY
TORTORA / TAUPE
BRONZO/TABACCO / BRONZE-TOBACCO
OTTANIO/BRONZO / TEAL-BRONZE
ALUMINIUM / ALLUMINIO moka / dark brown
CERAMIC / CERAMICA grey porphyry / porfido grigio
HPL corten
IROKO
ALUMINIUM / ALLUMINIO bronze / bronzo
ALUMINIUM / ALLUMINIO grey / grigio
CERAMIC / CERAMICA lime white / bianco calce
TEAK
ALUMINIUM / ALLUMINIO silk grey / grigio seta
HPL bedonia
ALUMINIUM / ALLUMINIO Black / nero
HPL cement / cemento
HPL silk grey / grigio seta
CERAMIC / CERAMICA dark stone / grigio scuro
ALUMINIUM / ALLUMINIO white / bianco

The finish plates, in the book

Cushion thickness is deck arithmetic, not a style choice: the maker builds the bare frame deck low or high knowing what will sit on it, and the cushion is the remainder to a comfortable finished seat. That is why a dining pad runs thin and deep seating runs thick — neither is an upgrade on the other.

For a dining chairs or armchair: 3–6 cm seat pad — slim enough that the shell still reads and knee room under a 74 cm table survives. A metal shell takes the slimmer end with a non-slip base; teak and woven frames carry 4–6 cm, with an optional tied back pad.
Core: Exposed pieces take an open-cell, fast-draining (reticulated) core: water passes straight through instead of pooling in the foam. A crowned profile sheds standing water by geometry. Neither makes a cushion waterproof — outdoor builds drain, they do not seal.
Fabric: Outdoor cloth earns its keep in the fibre. Solution-dyed yarn carries its pigment all the way through the fibre, so colour survives sun and scrubbing; surface-dyed cloth wears its colour off. Performance fabrics are water-resistant rather than waterproof, and mildew grows on dirt sitting on the cloth, not in the fibre itself — which is why the published care is washing, drying and standing a soaked cushion on edge to drain.
Patterns & your own fabric: Fabrics and patterns are fully specifiable — plains, stripes and prints, with repeat, direction and railroading captured in the brief so a pattern lands straight on every panel. Many pieces also accept customer’s own material (C.O.M.) — the brief asks rather than assumes.

As the maker dimensions it

Where Varaschin publishes a cushion thickness, it prints on the product sheet’s own elevation: TIBIDABO sofa 14 cm over a 28 cm deck, BABYLON sofa 15 cm, CRICKET settee 9 cm on a sculpted shell, TIBIDABO dining armchair 8 cm. Most sheets print seat height only — where no figure is printed, none is claimed here.

Commission custom cushions

Made to order through our supplier workshops — sized to this frame, in your chosen fabric, from a thin dining pad to a full deep-seating build.

MODELLO REGISTRATO / REGISTERED MODEL: Registered-design notice printed at the foot of the collection description on the openers of EMMA (render p004), EMMA CROSS (p031), EMMA SUNSCREEN (p046), TIBIDABO (p051), SUMMER SET (p095), CRICKET (p110), BABYLON (p127), SYSTEM STAR (p136), SYSTEM (p144), BARCODE (p155) and BALI (p163). NOT printed on the BELT opener (render p073) — BELT is the one collection in part 1 whose opener carries no registered-model line.
teak di piantagione certificata / certified plantation teak: Timber sourcing claim printed on the SYSTEM opener (render p144, for the optional teak bench seat), the BARCODE opener (p155, whole collection) and the BALI opener (p163, whole collection). Printed wording: "teak di piantagione certificata" / "plantation certified solid teak" / "solid teak wood from certified plantation". No certification scheme or certificate number is printed.
soluzioni d'arredo / MULTIPLE SOLUTIONS (BELT): BELT carries two configuration-reference spreads, render p089 (printed 174-175) and render p093 (printed 182-183). Each prints eight plan-view sofa layouts labelled /01 to /08. NO article codes and NO dimensions are printed on either spread — they are layout inspiration only, not a parts list.
MODELLO REGISTRATO / REGISTERED MODEL: Registration statement printed on the technical spreads of BALI BERGÈRE DECK RELAX, NOSS, CLEVER, LINK, LAPIS, BENTO, PLINTO, BAHIA, MAAT and KOLONAKI. SMART instead prints 'MATERIALE REGISTRATO / REGISTERED MATERIAL' (referring to VAR#TEX, not the model).
LINK extendable mechanism: Dedicated spread 'link allungabile / EXTENDABLE TABLE' (printed 404-405) showing the 200x100 H73 in three states: closed 200, one 55 cm leaf to 255, two 55 cm leaves to 310. The photo captions are printed '200 mm / 255 mm / 310 mm' — evidently centimetres given the icons and the rest of the catalogue; recorded as printed, not corrected.
BENTO composition rules: 'soluzioni d'arredo / MULTIPLE SOLUTIONS' (printed 470-471): nine worked composition diagrams labelled /01 to /09 built from the seven BENTO modules. The prose states the customer may re-arrange purchased modules repeatedly and add further modules later, 'rispettando semplicemente le regole di composizione / following the possible options available'. Caption: 'DIVANO BENTO - TAVOLINO BELT - PANCA SYSTEM'.
CARPET material specification: 'Tappeti per esterno realizzati con fibre sintetiche, non-assorbenti e altamente resistenti all'azione degli agenti atmosferici. 100% Polipropilene / Outdoor carpet in synthetic fibers, non absorbent and highly resistant to bad weather. 100% Polypropelene' (spelling as printed).
TRAMA material specification: 'Coperta per esterno con lavorazione maglia rasata. Composizione 100% Olyna. / Outdoor knitted blanket made of 100% Olyna.' Size 170x120 cm, five printed colourways.
COVER — protective covers programme: Custom-made covers cut to the ordered sofa composition and produced at the same time as the sofa. 100% polyester, 180 g/m2, light grey, one side coated with acrylic resin, Teflon stain-repellent and oil/water-repellent treatment. Tested to UNI EN 20811 (water permeability): water column greater than 1000 mm.