(smow)chair

All this looking at, talking about and writing about other people’s design, has left us yearning to get on with completing our own furniture project: (smow)chair.

As already stated, the basic form and idea were developed in the (smow)warehouse here in Leipzig.

The hard work was then done at the Vitra Design Museum Cardboard Furniture Workshop in Weil am Rhein.

In conjunction with every exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum a programme of events is organised that aims to expand the topic a little and to offer insights that cannot be realised in the “normal” exhibition format.

For the current exhibition “Frank O. Gehry since 1997″, for example, in addition to a series of films and talks a number of “Furniture à la Frank Gehry” workshops will take place.

“Our” exhibition was “Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction“  and on an oppressively hot Sunday in July we gathered with 18 others in front of the Vitra Design Museum for our cardboard furniture workshop – cardboard representing pared down construction. Following a guided tour of the exhibition, and a light lunch, we were taken to an atelier on the edge of the Vitra Campus.

Where after a brief introduction to cardboard and the safe handling of the various tools available to us – we set to work.

The (smow)chair in development at the Vitra Design Museum Workshop

The “we” in this context being the assembled course participants; a cosmopolitan bunch, not just in terms of ages, nationalities and experience – but also in terms of our approaches to the subject.

Cardboard is a relatively flexible material that with the correct handling can be applied in just as many ways as any other material.

“Correct handling” is of course the key.

Because cardboard is an unforgiving material, and if you get it wrong you might as well not have started.

The benefit of such a workshop, however, is that not only are the course leaders on hand to offer advice if you things don’t go as planned – but also other course participants.

All very communal.

And so by the end of the afternoon most of us had managed, if not to have completed the intended object, at least to have taken a few steps in the correct direction.

And perhaps most importantly we all learned a few lessons about the vagaries of cardboard.

Having had the advantage of a) having tested our model in advance, and b) of having already had the help of the (smow) warehouse team, we finished the workshop with the first two prototypes of (smow)chair v1.0

And were genuinely so happy.

And then with the workshop finished we headed of to the VitraHaus for a well deserved piece of strawberry cake.

If anyone fancies trying their hand at making some “Furniture à la Frank Gehry” – also a challenging exercise in cardboard design – the next workshop is on March 5th.

More details can be found at www.design-museum.de

And we’ll bring you up to date on the development of the (smow)chair since Weil am Rhein soon.

There's more than one way to work with cardboard...

We closely followed the development of this little fellow for most of the afternoon

The first independent test of (smow)chair ... it works!

Cardboard furniture 1.0 - at Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein

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For both Canada and Spain the tournament was already over before this match kicked off.

Despite that both sides contributed to a high quality and keenly contested match.

Although on paper Patricia Urquiola was the favourite, she was unable to properly take advantage of her greater repertoire, preferring instead to rely on fairly large scale, prestige projects.

Although Frank Gehry remained true to his non-linear form he surprised Urquiola late in the match with a left twist cube for Heller.

The final score of 1:0 certainly flattering Frank Gehry

The Group B table and all Group B results can be found here.

Vitra Design Museum: Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction.

Parallel to its exhibitions the Vitra Design Museum organises workshops designed not only to accompany the exhibitions but much more to expand on them and so offer participants a new, active, insight into the theme. Or at least an aspect of the theme.

For the current exhibition “Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction” this means, among others, workshops on cardboard furniture production.

Cardboard is without question one of the more challenging products that one can choose for furniture design.

As a cheap, plentiful and – generally- environmentally responsible product it appears to be perfect for use in modern furniture design.

Perfect that is were it not for its inherent instability and fragility problems.

Loving problems as we do we signed up for the workshop.

Having committed our first task was to decide on the product we wanted to develop.

Three sources of inspiration were to act as our guides.

Firstly the concept of the exhibition: Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction. Reduction. Regardless what we decided upon it had to involve using the design process to help “reduce” the product.

Chairless by Alejandro Aravena for Vitra

Among the current products on the market that make use of reduction in design is Chairless by Alejandro Aravena for Vitra.

As a product Chairless claims to remove the chair from the chair. And as such was our second source of inspiration.

For although we like the Chairless concept, for us what is actually does is take the static equilibrium that exist in a chair and replaces that with the system of muscular forces within the human body.

As such the user of Chairless is restricted in his or her movement, as every movement upsets the distribution of forces within the system thus creating instability. If you want to read your friends magazine, but it’s lying to far away – you have to “break” the chair in order to reach the magazine.

And so we decided to take up the “Chairless” idea and develop it with the intention of creating a truly “chairless” chair system that still allows the user full mobility.

MVS Chaise by Maarten van Severen from Vitra

Fairly quickly we landed upon the idea of a foldable system and taking our guidance from Maarten van Severn, an expert in reduced design, we based our concept on the geometry of his MVS Chaise.

The principle problem was – as always with cardboard – how do we guarantee the stability of the product?

With other materials such as plastic, wood or concrete one has a certain degree of inherent stability.

With cardboard one has to introduce the stability as a component of the design.

Frank Gehry, for example achieved the stability in his “Easy Edges” series through the layering of cardboard: chairs such as the Wiggle Side Chair being created by gluing numerous layers of cardboard together under extreme pressure.

The other “classic” solutions when working with cardboard are folding and insertion.

The question facing us was how could we best design our product, without losing sight of the desire to have it as “reduced” as possible.

And it was this question that was to dominate the development phase.

Vitra Design Museum: The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction

The (smow)blog team outing to the cardboard furniture workshop was coupled with a visit to the current Vitra Design Museum Exhibition: The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction.

We must admit to finding it more than a little ironic that an exhibition on “Design and the Art of Reduction” should be taking place in a building designed by Frank Gehry, especially when Tadao Ando’s Conference Pavilion is only some 10m away.

And after the long journey to Weil am Rhein this thought honestly kept us amused for about 4 hours.

The exhibition itself is divided into 12 thematic sections each of which deals with a different aspect of “reduction”; be it elements that the end customer is aware of, for example, geometry or lightness or those that remain hidden from the customer, for example reduction in logistics.

Stephan Schulz: Concrete Bowl

Some 160 objects illustrate the various themes ranging from design classics such as Michael Thonet‘s Chair No. 14 or the Ant Chair by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen onto objects that are less well known – if every bit as interesting – such as Stephan Schulz‘s concrete bowl or Marcel Wanders‘ Knotted Chair for Capellini.

Good design needn’t be complicated, less but more, form follows function – the number of design theories that encapsulate the practice of “reduction” are as numerous as they are legendary: yet at design show after design show we are confronted with products that attempt to win us over through their complexity and extravagance.

We also don’t know why that should be, but we suspect it has a lot to do with a saturated market and the associated increasing role that the internet plays in ensuring that your – probably completely superfluous – work is seen.

Which design blog is going to feature Jasper Morrison‘s Ply-Chair when they have photo of a bookcase that looks like to two paradise birds engaging in a mating ritual atop Carmen Miranda?

Ok we would. But not many others.

For us the true art of reduction in design is when the designer reduces the volume of the product down to the absolute minimum – be it through the use of a new material, innovative joining of the individual elements or through reducing the exterior measurements.

.03 by Maarten Van Severen

One particular example that occurs to us being Maarten van Severen’s’ .03 with its integrated compound spring supports that give the chair its comfort and stability without unduly adding to the weight, volume or outer dimensions.

However as the exhibition “The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction” ably demonstrates  reduction can involve other processes.

Joe Colombo’s No 281 lamp, Wilhelm Wagenfeld’s tea service or Donald Judd’s Chair 84 proving nice examples of what can be achieved with the necessary talent and motivation.

On the negative side we must add that for our taste the exhibition highlighted the work of Charles and Ray Eames a little too heavily – specifically the dedication of the complete section “development” to their work looks suspiciously like a bit of editorial shoe-horning on the curators part.

That aside, for all interested in the design process, and especially where the difference between “designer” furniture – i.e. those furniture pieces where a targeted design process occurs- and cheaper, generic products lies, the Vitra Design Museum exhibition “The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction.” is definitely worth the trip.
The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction at the Vitra Design Museum runs until September 19th 2010. More details can be found at http://www.design-museum.de

If ever a designer furniture contest could be compared to a game of “rock-paper-scissors” then surely Hella Jongerius against Frank O. Gehry.

The Mistress of Materials against the King of Solid Constructions.

And so developed this match. Frank Gehry applied all his radical geometry to try to find a way through the Dutch defence; but found himself continually hindered by the fact that natural material forms are always more sustainable than artificially generated: Or put another way Hella Jongerius genuine organic forms proved more than a match for Frank Gehry’s contrived organic forms and in the closing minutes Hella Jongerius scored with a wonderful Bovist for Vitra.

The Group B table and all Group B results can be found here.

The (smow) designer furniture world cup always throws up some interesting matches, and Konstantin Grcic against Frank Gehry was always going to be a highly entertaining spectacle: experience against youth, minimalist straightforwardness versus radical non-conformity.

From the very first minute the inability of Konstantin Grcic to get to grips with the non-linear forms created by his opponent was obvious and Frank Gehry quickly established a 1:0 lead, largely thanks to some brilliant utilisation of the legendary “Easy Edges” combinations. However Konstantin Grcic persevered and shortly before the break managed to get back to 1:1 through the cleverly juxtapositioned Mayday lamp for flos.

In the second half Konstantin Grcic became better at reading Frank Gehry’s increasingly predictable approach and his increasingly confident build-up paid off with his Chair One for Magis and Myto for Plank.

The Group B table and all Group B results can be found here.

In conjunction with the current exhibition “The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction” the Vitra Design Museum are running a series of summer workshops.

“The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction” deals, as the name implies, with “reduction” in design: principally the reasons for reduction in design – be they technical, aesthetic or philosophical.

Using this as the basis, the workshops encourage participants to think “reduced” and for all to create useful products from a, when not the, most basic material: cardboard.

Cardboard furniture is not new; however, cardboard as a material is so versatile that one can always reinvent how one utilises it.

Frank Gehry‘s Easy Edges series featuring, among other items, the Wiggle Side Chair and Wiggle Stool, is completely different products to say Stuart Millers “nameless” foldable cardboard chair.

And don’t even get us started on his monumental Red Beaver.

Just as with metal, wood or plastic, the limits with cardboard are less in the material pers se and more in the ability to solve problems and work with it correctly.

Would be Frank Gehry’s can test their skills at Vitra in Weil am Rhein on June 29 or August 14

In addition the Vitra Design Museum is offering workshops in jewellery design, paper collage as well as creating bags and lamps from recycled materials.

Full details and registration information can be found at http://www.design-museum.de

Red Beaver by Frank Gehry : Test your own cardboard furniture skills at the Vitra Design Museum

For people who spend most of their working lives sat at desks, publishers and authors have a frightening disregard for comfort when it comes to chairs.

Or at least they do if the furniture we saw at the 2010 Leipzig Buchmesse was a measure of the industry norm.

Cheap folding chairs, cheap copies of designer furniture classics being presented as originals and general cheap tat as far as the eye could see.

Fortunately one or two of the exhibitors seemed better informed. Below a few snapshots of some of the happier moments of the 2010 Leipzig Buchmesse from a designer furniture perspective:

French/German culture channel ARTE with Swan Chairs by Arne Jacobsen from Fritz Hansen

French/German culture channel ARTE with Swan Chairs by Arne Jacobsen from Fritz Hansen

German news channel Phoneix with Tom Vacs by Ron Arad for Vitra

German news channel Phoneix with Tom Vacs by Ron Arad for Vitra

MDR with LEM by Shin and Tomoko Azumi for lapalma

MDR with LEM by Shin and Tomoko Azumi for lapalma

Reclam Verlag with a USM Haller reception desk.

Reclam Verlag with USM Haller

Reclam Verlag with a USM Haller reception desk

Fachhochschule Potsdam with a tribute to fellow Brandenburger Egon Eiermann. Eiermann table frames from Richard Lampert and SE 68 chairs from Wilde + Spieth.

Fachhochschule Potsdam with a tribute to fellow Brandenburger Egon Eiermann

SE 68 chairs from Wilde + Spieth

And perhaps most impressive of all the students of Bauhaus University Weimar who had, in our eyes, a stand as dedicated to Block by Frank Gehry from Vitra.

Block by Frank Gehry from Vitra

Bauhaus University Weimar

We can only the hope the situation improves for the Leipzig Buchmesse 2011.

But please, with better quality furniture

Weil am Rhein Rathaus

When we were still young, fit and healthy, towns and cities existed.

Just existed.

These days in order to exist a city needs to be the city of something.
And so  as one drives along a German motorway, every ten metres or so comes a large brown sign announcing the next conurbation as “Chemnitz – City of the Modernity”, “Pied Piper City Hameln” or “Prien am Chiemsee – City of the criminally lazy taxi drivers”.

Not wanting to be the outsider in this age of claims making, Weil am Rhein has decided to call itself “Weil am Rhein – City of Chairs”

And what could be more appropriate for a city that uses an image of the Vitra Design Museum to illustrate the “Economy and Tourism” section of their homepage and which welcomes 100,000 tourists a year to the Vitra Campus in the Charles Eames Strasse.

And it’s certainly a lot catchier than “Weil am Rhein – City of the huge goods train station”

There’s just two things that bother us.

Trifling, small,  things, but you know us….

Apple Honey by Shiro Kuramata in Weil am Rhein

In front of the modernistic and inspirational “Rheincenter” stands a huge statue of a chair.

A chair that isn’t, wasn’t and never will be produced by Vitra. Rather by Dutch producer USM Pastoe.(Obviously not to confused with Swiss producer USM Haller)

Apple Honey by Shiro Kuramata is a wonderful chair.

Shiro Kuramata did partake in the very first Vitra Editions, alongside the likes of Frank Gehry and Ron Arad.

Vitra even produced Shiro Kuramata’s equally delightful “How High The Moon” chair.

But not Apple Honey.

Much more confusing is the image painted onto the side of one of the four tower blocks that “tower” over the Vitra Campus and the new VitraHaus.

Next to the text “City of Chairs” is a picture of a chair.

A most curious, three leggeed, chair.

Weil am Rhein City of chairs ... but which chairs

Our initial reaction was that it was a DCM by Charles and Ray Eames. And very fitting we found that too given the close ties between the the Eames’, Vitra and Weil am Rhein.

Except the DCM is of course a four legged chair.

And try as we might we simply cannot think of a single three legged chair that Vitra produce.

Our next guess was that it was an “Ant Chair” by Arne Jacobsen…also an excellent representative of 20th century chair design. But in the Ant Chair the seat and the back are formed from one piece of wood. And the single leg is at the front.

Then we really thought we had it: SE 69 by Egon Eiermann. But no the SE 69 also has the single leg at the front.

Egon Eiermann’s SE 42 does have the single leg at the back, but is made of wood.

Indeed the longer we stood in the middle of Römerstrasse, holding up the traffic and irritating the good folks of Weil am Rhein, the more we struggled to think of a three-legged chair which has a steel tube single back leg.

Principally on account of the instability factor.

Only once we were back in Leipzig could we track it down, thanks to the MoMA New York archive.

Charles Eames Three legged side chair from 1944 (photo via http://www.moma.org/)

Three-Legged Side Chair by Charles Eames for the Evans Products Co from 1944.

A chair which may or not have been taken on by Hermann Miller when they acquired the Eames rights from Evans in 1946. And so which may or may not be part of those Charles and Ray Eames products to which Vitra the European production rights posses.

Which is a long way of saying, Weil am Rhein appears to celebrate it’s “City of Chairs” status with two chairs which have nothing to do with it’s status as one of the most important centres of contemporary European designer furniture production.

Visitors to the new VitraHaus can ponder this paradox from the fourth floor window.

Or simply enjoy the wonderful view over the Vitra Design Museum and the orchard meadow.

Its a little known fact, but the printer in (smow)HQ sits atop a “Block” by Frank Gehry.

Shelf114/Shelf115 by diefabrik

And indeed in general we at (smow)blog are long standing fans of corrugated cardboard furniture; and not only since introducing the world to Stuart Miller during the 2009 Saloni.

Shelf 114/115 from Leipzig based diefabrik didn’t quite set our hearts ablaze as much as Stuarts nameless chair, but did make us very happy.

It is a truly, truly ridiculous concept. Oval cardboard forms with exaggerated teeth spread along the top and bottom edge.

Ridiculous.

But the concept is also both genius and practical.

And not just for student hovels. Shops, offices, museums – and of course hoveling students – can profit from the simple ingeniousness.

Shelf 114/115 by diefabrik.

Speaks for itself really.

Great