(smow)chair v1.0

The motivation for the (smow)chair began with Chairless by Alejandro Aravena for Vitra.

Although a truly delightful product we were somewhat irritated by the fact that the design for Chairless wasn’t that, well,  “chairless” : rather replaces the tensions within a chair with the tensions in the users body.

The user becoming the chair and consequently limited in their movement while using Chairless.

But because the “chairless” concept so impressed us we decided to take the opportunity presented by the Vitra Design Museum cardboard furniture workshop and the exhibition “Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction” to develop our own “chairless” chair.

Our criteria:

• 100% cardboard, no other material
• transportable
• as reduced a design as possible

Our first decision was to lose the legs. Chairs don’t need legs.

In western cultures we are so used to chairs with legs that we westerners find it quaint or even patronisingly “authentic” when we travel to other cultures where chairs with legs aren’t in everyday use.

But chairs don’t need legs.

And so the legs went.

MVS Chaise by Maarten van Severen for Vitra.

The basis of our design was Maarten Van Severen’s MVS Chaise from Vitra.

Its wonderful three sectioned form being the perfect basis for a folding “chair” with a seat, back and support.
The only question was how to gain the stability we required: without resorting to other materials.

After much unsuccessful experimentation the answer came via the (smow)warehouse team.

Not only are the (smow)warehouse team experts in the packing and shipping of designer furniture and the construction of USM Haller units - they also know a little bit about statics.

And it was this input that was to lead to the form of the (smow)chair v1.0

In essence “the chair” has been reduced to “the arms”.

The arms provide the stability and are responsible for the chair.
The back/support/seat section - the part that most understand as a “chair” - is in contrast interchangeable and expendable.

He/she who has the arms can build a chair -  he/she who has only the back/seat/support element cannot.

Two (smow)chairs ready for departure

In addition the longitudinal slit in the arms allow the chair to be safely packed together…. and in the folded form (smow)chair can be readily transported.

We, for example, brought two (smow)chairs back from Weil am Rhein tied to the back of a rucksack.

The development of the (smow)chair has not stopped and (smow)chair v2.0 is finished, v3.0 is expected soon.

A production model is however still some way off.

Over the coming weeks we will not only document the further development of the (smow)chair but also use the (smow)chair to explain a little about furniture design and the designer furniture industry.

(smow)chair and the art of reduction

While others amused themselves at Tendence in Frankfurt, we headed of to Copenhagen and CODE 10.

We’re not saying that was a mistake; but we’re equally unconvinced that it was the best idea we’ve ever had.

And we’ve had some really poor ideas.

“You’re not getting any younger, Denmark. The world is changing, design is changing, even materials are changing. You can’t stay in here all day dreaming about bent plastic and Arnold Jacobsen.”

“It’s Arne Jacobsen”

Despite the promises in advance that CODE 10 would “… demonstrate new approaches to design form, design thinking and the creative process” all we found was an awful lot of tired and jaded design concepts all either hoping to latch onto popular conceptions of what “Danish Design” is or simply copying what the competitors are doing for fear of losing market share.

What we didn’t find was an awful lot of the promised exhibitors - because they weren’t really exhibiting.

The CODE 10 concept is in principle not that bad.

The Bella Centre in Copenhagen is already home to the Scandinavian Shoe Centre and Copenhagen Fashion House, both locations where agents are given a permanent forum to present collections to trade customers.

The BC Design Centre is a similar concept for the Danish furniture industry; a sort of one-stop-shop for all those trade customers looking for designer furniture.

Nice idea.

CODE 10 took place inside the BC Design Centre.

However, that meant that the majority of the “real” exhibitors at CODE 10 were not the furniture producers themselves, but the Danish agents of the furniture producers.

The Bella Centre in Copenhagen: Not only does it resemble a provincial shopping centre from outside...

Which meant that at CODE 10 there was basically nothing to see and barely a producer or designer to talk to.

And that’s a pretty poor basis for a trade fair.

While the fact that the majority of the agents are based permanently at the BC Design Centre, coupled to the mountains of rubbish and packaging lying visible in the unused rooms, gave the whole event the feel of a cheap provincial shopping centre rather than a dynamic international trade fair.

In short; nice idea, poorly executed.

Fortunately there were a couple of objects worth exploring - both re-issues of Danish design classics and new products from young designers.

The rest were just hanging onto the tailcoats of a myth and fighting to save the last embers of a fire that has long since burnt out.

Over the next few days we will present those gems that we did find; and do our bit to try to rescue the Danish designer furniture industry.

CODE 10: The spirit of Danish designer furniture culture departed early

Michael Thonet: A life's work as a life's philosophy

On the last Sunday of the school summer holidays over 35 production companies in and around Kassel stage an annual collective “Open Day” - Blauer Sonntag.

The name may be an extremely complex and over ambitious pun - the idea is however much more agreeable and this year we took the opportunity to visit Thonet in Frankenberg(Eder).

For not only was Blauer Sonntag the first “official” event for the new Thonet Wohnshowroom, but visitors also had the rare opportunity to observe the Thonet wood bending process.

The Thonet Wohnshowroom may not have been designed by Herzog and de Meuron; but that doesn’t make it any less of a visual illusion. Dating from 1889 the half-timbered house stands next to the Thonet factory and is the former family home of company directors Claus, Peter and Philipp Thonet. The Thonet Wohnshowroom isn’t especially large; however, all internal connecting doors are open which, coupled to the well-considered removal of a couple of internal walls and wonderful window placement, produces the effect of a space about twice the size that it actually is. As with the VitraHaus, the Thonet Wohnshowroom has been conceived as a product showroom; however, as the Thonet Wohnshowroom is a real house, with real proportions, the effect is in many ways better. The natural size limitations of the rooms creating a more authentic and personal atmosphere. One highlight for us, for example, was f/p design’s System 7000 shelving which shone a lot more in Frankenberg than was possible in Milan.

Cobb grill and Thonet - the perfect combination for winter, autumn, spring.. or summer

In the publicity press release Phillip Thonet states that he finds the conversion so appealing he could well imagine spending an afternoon alone in the Thonet Wohnshowroom.

We too.

And not just on account of the Cobb Grill in the conservatory.

Equally impressive is the Thonet Museum. When we spoke with Thonet creative director James Irvine in Milan he enthused about the number of fascinating items in the Thonet archive. Yeah Yeah! we thought, nice soundbite for the camera. It took less than five minutes in the Thonet Museum for us to realise that he genuinely wasn’t exaggerating. Alone admiring and investigating the 1884 “Day Bed” took us some 20 minutes. Just genius.

1884 Thonet Day Bed

If we did have one moan it was the somewhat “over-optimistic” Verner Panton corner: Panton and Thonet may have worked together on numerous projects, but not that many ever reached production. And “not many” is in itself extremely optimistic.

The real highlight of the afternoon however was the Biegerei. The English term “bending shop”, though correct, somehow doesn’t seem to do the institution justice.

As any fool know, in the 1840s, and after 20 years research, Michael Thonet perfected a process for bending wood to create furniture - and with chairs such the (2)14, more or less, invented the mass production of furniture.

The real beauty of a chair such as the 214, however, is the hidden complexity in a design that ouses simplicity and an innocent “anyone could make that” charm.

Watching the Thonet workers in action makes it clear just how brilliant Michael Thonet’s process is.

In modern industrial design a lot of time, sweat and money is spent refining processes and materials to improve stability and reduce volume. Michael Thonet did exactly the same. And not only the end result of his life’s work has changed little over the years.

The ghost of Michael Thonet still haunts the Thonet Biegerei

The tables on which the hot wood is bent have changed little since Michael Thonet devised his process in the1840s.

The old Biegerei in Frankenberg has changed little since Georg Thonet rebuilt the bombed factory in the early 1950s.

Even the surnames of the workers who bend the wood have changed relatively little over the decades.

But perhaps most comforting is the fact that in all probability it never will change.

It’s barely imaginable that robots and computers will ever be able to make a chair as complex as the 214 and so in the future he who buys a Thonet bent wood chair can be certain of getting a 100% hand produced product with an inbuilt, inherent 160 year old quality guarantee.

And for those of you who don’t know what the twist with Michael Thonet’s concept is, we’ll reveal it soon.

Habeas cathedra!

Thonet is one of those companies that it is all too easy to ignore; but only because their products are so widely copied. And that is wrong. Thonet remain the company who helped introduced series production, who made quality furniture accessible for a mass public and who were at the forefront of two of the most important innovations in furniture design: “bent wood” and “bent steel tube”.

And perhaps more importantly they remain a family business who exist as an integral part of the community in which they are based.

A day such a Blauer Sonntag is therefore important not only as it allows the company to explain their background and philosophy, but also because they can show customers just what you get for money.

Each of the ca. 400 visitors who visited Thonet on Sunday and who saw the sweat on the Biegerei worker’s brows now knows that.

We left Frankenberg with just photos.... others with a little more.

And so with our camera memory cards full of data, our stomachs full of cake and a storm front hard on our heels, we headed home through the rolling green valleys of North Hessen.

And for all who missed Blauer Sonntag;  Thonet are hosting a special factory sale on September 25/26. The Biegerei is sadly not open that weekend; however the Thonet Museum and Thonet Wohnshowroom will be - in addition to the chance to purchase Thonet seconds and other “not for retail sale” items at reduced prices.

Further photos can be found on the smow facebook page

When most people get itchy feet they go the podiatrist.

We go on tour.

For attractive as late summer evenings here in Lower East Plagwitz Village undoubtedly are, they pale against the charms of Thonet in Frankenberg(Eder), CODE 10 in Copenhagen, Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven and Vienna Design Week in … Vienna.

Reports, photos, videos - and cake reviews - to follow.

Our carriage awaits: The(smow) late summer tour can begin

Eero Saarinen, 1910 - 1961

August 20th marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Finnish architect/designer Eero Saarinen.

Eero Saarinen had - in all probability - very little career choice other than that of architect: Not only was his father Eliel Saarinen one of Finland’s most celebrated architects, but two of his uncles followed the same profession. In addition his mother, Loja Gesellius Saarinen, was a sculptress and textile designer.

Eero Saarinen spent his first 13 years in his birthplace, Kirkkonummi on the outskirts of Helsinki. In 1923, following the positive feedback to Eliel Saarinen’s entry for the Chicago Tribune Tower competition, the family emigrated to the USA - initially to Evanston, Illinois before in 1925 Eliel Saarinen was commissioned by G.G. Booth to build the new Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

The Cranbrook Academy Campus, designed by Eliel Saarinen

A commission that was later to have a large influence on Eero’s career.

In 1930 Eero travelled to Paris where he spent a year studying sculpture at L’Académie de la Grande Chaumière before enrolling at Yale School of Architecture from where he graduated in 1935. After a year travelling Europe and North Africa, Eero Saarinen returned to America where he began working in his fathers office at Cranbrook; and where he met Charles Eames for the first time. The young Eames both studying at the college and being employed in Eliel Saarinen’s office.

The meeting was to be the start of a lifelong professional and personal relationship; Saarinen even naming the first son from his second marriage “Eames”.

Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen at Cranbrook Academy (photo © Cranbrook Archives)

The professional careers of Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen were equally close and both effectively started with joint projects; the 1940 “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competition and the 1945-49 “Case Study House #9″ for Arts & Architecture Magazine.

In response to an increasing boredom in the USA with the minimalist steel/leather/glass objects of the Bauhaus School, the Museum of Modern Art in New York organised in 1940 a competition entitled: “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” to find the best new American furniture design concepts. The competition rules called for designs that were functional, affordable and based on new, modern production processes.

Eames and Saarinen submitted an entry comprising eight designs based largely on their early experiments with moulded synthetic furniture and that included, amongst others, the Conversation Chair or as it is more popularly known today, the Organic Chair.

The jury, including such luminaries as Marcel Breuer and Alvar Aalto, awarded Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen first prize.

The Organic Chair by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen through Vitra

While the award brought the pair recognition, the mass production of the Eames-Saarinen designs was still impractical in the early 1940s. The technology simply not being rife enough to either produce the chairs nor the machines required to produce the chairs. The approach used, however, was to be important in both designers later furniture design work. Charles Eames employing it for his fibreglass/plastic chair series; while Saarinen used it in his works for Knoll International, most notably the Womb Chair and the Tulip Chair - arguably his two most important designs.

Eames and Saarinen’s architectural careers also involved an early joint project. In January 1945 the US Magazine Arts & Architecture publisher John Entenza wrote an editorial calling for greater use of mass production technology in house building. In the following years a series of leading architects were commissioned to design and build their vision of the industrial mass produced house of the future.

In 1949 “Case Study House #9″ by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen was completed. Showing the typical quadratic nature of most of Eames and Saarinen’s early work,”Case Study House #9″ is filled with fixtures, features and furniture that illustrate both mens belief in the unity between architecture and design and the importance of the relation between a building, its contents and its user.

Next door to “Case Study House #9″ is “Case Study House #8″ the so-called “Eames House”: officially accredited to Charles and Ray Eames, but where one also detects the influence of Eero Saarinen.

For both Saarinen and Eames, their participation in such a prestigious project was to bring the two, still relatively young, architects a greater public and greater authority.

In 1946 another of Eero Saarinen’s “Cranbrook Connections” lead to the start of his collaboration with Knoll International.

Tulip Chair by Eero Saarinen for Knoll International

At Cranbrook Saarinen had met Florence Schust. In 1944 Florence married the young German furniture producer Hans G. Knoll and became the Knoll International “in-house interior designer”; and it was Florence Knoll who approached Saarinen to ask him to develop his moulded chair concept for the company.

In total Saarinen developed over a dozen products for Knoll International, many of which have been in continuous production since their launch.

Despite the importance of his work, for Eero Saarinen furniture design was a side project to his architecture career; a career which saw him build, amongst other buildings, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St Louis, the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport New York and Dulles International Airport, Washington. That said it was never a lesser value work for Saarinen, who was fascinated by the concept that each part of a work could reflect and compliment the others, that outside and inside could be united as one entity.  In that sense Saarinen’s furniture designs can be seen as a direct extension of his architectural work. And his architectural work as an extension of his furniture design.

On September 1st 1961 Eero Saarinen died following an operation on a brain tumour.

Despite dying young, in his 25 year career Eero Saarinen created a canon of work - both architectural and furniture designs - that not only helped redefine architectural theory and shaped future thinking, but also laid the foundations for much of the modern designer furniture industry.

Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.

Eero Saarinen, 1910- 1961

Time was when social networking for businesses meant cocktail parties, tennis clubs and the Freemasons.

Time Was.

However Time Is and in the modern commercial world social networking means Facebook, Twitter, X-ing et al

Not only as a marketing tool but also as an increasingly important instrument for communicating with customers, gathering feedback and handling criticism.

Fritz Hansen have recognised the advantages of social networking

In addition a recent survey by Edison Research among twitter users in the USA indicated that for many consumers Twitter is an important source of information on products; not just in terms of getting basic information, but also exchanging views and opinions.

Research by smow.com has revealed that although the use and acceptance of Twitter amongst the leading designer furniture producers has grown in recent years; the utilisation of social networking in the designer furniture industry lags far behind that in other commercial sectors.

For (smow) report author Kelly Felten, a problem “Given the rapid rise in the number of “design blogs” in recent years it is increasingly important that producers are able to both follow and respond to discussions concerning their products. If that is happening on twitter, the producers need to be there!”

According to Felten more targeted twitter usage could also prove helpful in areas such building brand loyalty amongst consumers or organising more efficient publicity campaigns ahead of large trade fairs.

“Imagine if when designer X launched a new product for producer Y,  a Twitter chat with X was organised over Ys Twitter account” says Felten, “you’ve got an instant online buzz”

In addition better, consumer relevant content could help the designer furniture producers solve their principle problem: the relatively low numbers of followers.

Alone Herman Miller with some 62,000 followers can claim to match the leading commercial brands in terms of twitter numbers.

That designer furniture customers are interested in using Twitter, for example, can be seen in the case of Kartell. The Italian producer started tweeting in April 2010 shortly before the Milan furniture fair and now has over 600 followers.

@kartellpeople Started tweeting on April 8th 2010

According to Kelly Felten on its own Twitter won’t change the design furniture industry, but targeted and professional Twitter usage will play an increasingly important role for designer furniture producers.

“The old distribution structures are changing, and with them the communication paths between end customer and producer”, says Felten, “The designer furniture producers have recognised that, however, they’re still learning the ropes”

The (smow) Designer Furniture Twitter Top 11:

(As on 18.08.2010)

(for comparison http://twitter.com/smowblog has 220 followers and a Klout rating of 05)

For most people naming Swiss designer furniture producers is as much of a challenge as naming famous Belgians or happily married English footballers.

USM Haller being the equivalent of Belgium’s Hergé.

However the Confoederatio Helvetica has a lot more to offer than Fritz Haller’s genial system. And a lot more to offer than modular steel and chrome.

One of the greatest contrasts to USM Haller is the cabinet maker Röthlisberger.

Founded in 1928 Röthlisberger’s first contact with the global furniture market came in 1957 when they starting producing furniture on behalf of Knoll International. In 1975 the cooperation with Knoll International ended and in 1977 Röthlisberger introduced their own products onto the market under the name “Röthlisberger Kollektion”

Currently featuring products by designers such as Tomoko Azumi, Hanspeter Steiger or Susi and Ueli Berger the “Röthlisberger Kollektion” combines the companies experience in traditional Swiss carpentry with modern technology and approaches

In Milan (smow) caught up with Röthlisberger Kollektion boss Jürg Scheidegger and discussed the development of new products, the role of the Internet in the designer furniture industry - and the persuasive powers of Swiss chocolate.

Anna Castelli Ferrieri (1920-2006)

August 6th marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of the Italian architect, designer and Kartell co-founder Anna Castelli Ferrieri.

Despite initial flirtations with modernism, including a trip to Paris to visit Le Corbusier, the young Anna Castelli Ferrieri was drawn ever more to the Italian neo-rationalism  - especially that practiced by Franco Albini.

And although Kartell products may not be physically reminiscent of the work of Albini, the ethos behind the company and its approach to design are clearly rooted in Albini’s mix of traditional Italian design combined with modern approaches and affordable materials.

In addition to helping establish the golden era contemporary Italian design in the 1960s and 1970s as characterized by the likes of Joe Colombo or Ettore Sottsass,  Anna Castelli Ferrieri also contributed to the Italian design canon with her 1969 Componibili modular storage system; a system that remains a classic of contemporary Italian design.

From 1976 until her retirement in 1987 Anna Castelli Ferrieri served as artistic director by Kartell and oversaw the establishment of Kartell at the forefront of the development and utilization of modern plastics in product design.

Anna Castelli Ferrieri died on June 22nd 2006 aged 87.

Componibili by Anna Castelli Ferrieri for Kartell

Eames Lounge Chair by George Brückmann. A delightful combination of painting, photography and mind games.

A recurrent theme, not only here in the (smow)blog but also in general throughout the (smow) global network is the subject of illegal copies of design classics.

Or better put when is a design classic a design classic?

At the HGB Leipzig Rundgang in February we were confronted with an unexpected and somewhat unusual interpretation of the question in the form of “Eames Lounge Chair” by George Brückmann.

And were immediately hooked.

And not only we were impressed by Brückmanns work, In October 2009 his series “In-Situ” was selected to be part of the 2009/2010 “Gute Aussichten - junge deutsche fotografie” exhibition, one of the most important and prestigious Germanic contemporary photography exhibitions.

After 10 months and 6 stations in 3 countries the final “Gute Aussichten” exhibition of the 2009/2010 tour opens in the Art Foyer DZ Bank in Frankfurt am Main on Thursday July 29th.

Until the September 11th visitors will be able to view not only the work of George Brückmann but the work of the other seven young artists selected from the 91 entries submitted from 33 German colleges.

Ahead of the exhibition opening we caught up with George Brückmann in his atelier in Leipzig-Lindenau. And pretty much got off to the worst possible start.

Just as all forms of “design” rely on innovation and new ideas if they are to survive so to do the visual arts.

We thought George Brückmann painted onto photographs.

He doesn’t.

Still life with beer by George Brückmann. The objects are real, have been painted onto and then photographed

Initially he painted onto objects, coating the objects with paint of the same colour -  and then photographed them. And in doing so created wonderfully, obtuse, voluminous scenes somewhere between reality, painting and photography.

Then he moved onto painting objects which in the consciousness of the viewer were then extrapolated into other objects, before tackling the subject of design classics or better put the relationship between design classics and non-design classics.

We wont spoil the work by revealing the process, but enough to say George Brückmann paints designer furniture classics in such a way that through the composition of the final photograph “normal” objects appear transformed into the iconic pieces.

The paintings of the chairs themselves are not especially accurate, for all the the proportions and form  often vary from the originals. But that plays no role in your observation. You still recognise them, still find them attractive , still give them a value -  a value that then also seems to meliorate the raw and rudimentary settings.

Brückmann’s work is concerned with the “imaginary  extension” of one object into another and is achieved through a combination of perspective, context, art and the viewers innate cognition. Be it a cardboard box transformed into a deck chair or an everyday garden lounger seen as a Le Corbusiers LC 4 chaise longue.

Charles and Ray Eames’ lounge chair, The F 51 by Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohes’ Barcelona Chair being just three of the design classics he has re-interpretied.

Or better put extended from less valuable everyday items into the design classics we all know.

In the words of Brückmann “Here objects are what they could have been, could be, want to be or even should be”

The exhibition “Gute Aussichten - junge deutsche fotografie 2009/2010” can be viewed at the Art Foyer DZ Bank in Frankfurt am Main until September 11.

Le Corbusier LC 4 by George Brückmann part of "gute aussichten - junge deutsche fotografie 2009/2010"

Fritz Haller against Egon Eiermann.

While ahead of the 2010 (smow) designer furniture world cup final many bemoaned the decision of both Switzerland and Germany to  play safe with their more technical formations;  the match itself was one for connoisseurs.

Certainly  a Nils Holger Moormann for Germany or a Susi and Ueli Berger for Switzerland could have brought a little more imagination and colour to the match.  But what the two old masters lacked in flamboyancy they more than compensated for with technical brilliance and confident construction.

Egon Eiermann opened gently with his classic deskframe before quickly doubling up with his deceptively subtle shelving unit. Sensing the “office furniture” direction the match was taking Fritz Haller reached deep and produced a “Komplex integriertes Tisch-Organisations-System”. His KITOS Table being such a departure from his normal USM Haller system that it caused Eiermann to briefly stumble, the Brandenburger regaining his composition in time however to take a 1-0 lead with a beautifully worked SE 18 für Wilde + Spieth.

Spurned on by Eiermann’s SE 18 Fritz Haller responded with a quickfire roll container / Haller table combination before drawing level with a well placed Haller table flat screen swing arm.

The longer the match went on the more Fritz Haller’s stable USM Haller system seemed to control the match; however Egon Eiermann refused to give in and late in the second half  attempted a delightful  SE 68 /E 14 Rattan stool double. Neither of which could quite match the versatility of Haller’s USM system and with match heading for extra time Fritz Haller slide in a perfectly executed metal extension shelf for the victory.

And to take the (smow) designer furniture world cup back to Switzerland for the first time.

(smow)2010 Overview

The Swiss fans celebrate Fritz Haller's victory over Egon Eiermann