7 Cool Architects: A Tribute to the Series 7™ Chair
In collaboration with 7 cool architects, Danish design furniture company Fritz Hansen presents a special tribute to the iconic Series 7™ chair by Arne Jacobsen to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
The project saw Fritz Hansen collaborate with seven of the world’s most prominent architects, inviting them to develop their own personal interpretation of the iconic chair. The seven architects include Bjarke Ingels Group, Carlos Ott & Carlos Ponce de León, Jean Nouvel Design, Jun Igarashi Architects, Neri&Hu, Snøhetta and Zaha Hadid Design.
While Jacobsen’s chair designs were mostly inspired and developed for a specific context, the Series 7™ chair was not. It was created with a unique, universal quality open to interpretation and blending into various contexts as demonstrated in the exhibition 7 Cool Architects. This exhibition has seen the chair expressed through each of the architects’ own cultural backgrounds, drawing inspiration from their unique architectural concepts.
The Bjarke Ingels Group took inspiration from the material qualities, especially the layered veneer and the functionality of stacking the chair. Turning these properties into aesthetics, the resulting design sees a layered base replacing the traditional chair legs.
Carlos Ott & Carlos Ponce de León developed their chair based on the design of the Celebra Building in Montevideo, Uruguay. Reflecting the vertical garden growing up the walls in the building’s open-roof basement, the upholstery climbs and settles peacefully on the shell of the chair.
Jean Nouvel Design showcase their interpretation of the concept of Yin and Yang, developing a pair of chairs, that in their structure as well as colour continues and completes one another.
Inspired by the destruction left by earthquakes, Jun Igarashi Architects turned collapsed materials from waste to furniture through processing and colouring. The result is a chair that is formed from waste wood and the memories inherent in such material.
The Waterhouse renovation at South Bund, Shanghai in China was the inspiration behind Neri&Hu’s design. They developed a set of chairs representing the doubling of two original seats facing each other. In unity the chairs become one in a new version that leaves behind the singular chair as the individual becomes a community.
Snøhetta’s design explores the social aspects of the Series 7™ chair and focus on bringing out the softness of the original design. Their reinterpretation comes to live through a chair with no legs, leaving the cold materials of metal out, and keeping only the wood to represent softness. The final design is playful and opens up opportunities for use in numerous social contexts.
Finally, Zaha Hadid’s special edition takes inspiration from the fluid shapes of the Serpentine Sockler Gallery in London, United Kingdom. The result is a dynamic and seamless expression of structure and support.
The 7 Cool Architects exhibition will be on display at Fritz Hansen’s showroom at London Design Festival, which commences on Saturday 19 September 2015.
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