Cengiz Civan was born in 1975 in Haan, Germany. Largely self-taught, he began by selling plaster sculptures and building his own collection, moved into the design, sale and production of gold jewellery, and later turned to furniture, taking over a furnishing business and developing it into an established house. His first furniture design was Sequoia, conceived as a sofa for use at the dining table, and it is the piece through which he works with Riva 1920. Introduced in 2016 and developed as Sequoia 2.0 in 2019, the bench pairs a seat of glued solid wood slats, set on iron legs with a central gap, with generous seat and back cushions in leather or fabric finished with exposed stitching. It is offered in linear and corner configurations, bringing lounge comfort to the scale of the dining table.
