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Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec spent four years working on a chair whose structure is derived from the growth of plants. Here is a sneak preview of the unusual design of Vegetal – and a documentation of the complex design process.
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We again have to ask ourselves what it is really all about. Ours is a service profession, but over the last few decennia, that has been pushed back, out of sight.
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Alongside Sottsass and Memphis, the Vitra Collection also features Panton and Kuramata, Aalto and Arad, as well as Pesce and Colombo. It even stretches back to the early days of industrial production, with, for example Thonet, and further still. A company less driven by curiosity would ask: Why invest so much time and effort in preserving a heritage one can also regard as economic competition?
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It includes furniture, drawings, manuscripts, photos, studies, and prototypes. The extensive Vitra Design Museum Collection, whose historical breadth extends to the present day, is certainly not all-embracing, though despite its quite deliberate limitations, provides a greater overview than many of the large collections owned by public institutions.
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Slow Chair, designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for the Vitra Home Collection. It not only looks great but is extremely comfortable – its transparent, three-dimensionally knitted covering made from elastic polyester yarn constitutes a technical innovation that is challenging technicians and designers alike.
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At Salone del Mobile 2008, Vitra introduced three new concepts by British designer Jasper Morrison, a man known for his minimalist and rational approach to design.
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In 1952, even before the famous Coconut Chair or the Marshmallow Sofa, George Nelson designed a chair made out of bent wood that was initially referred to, simply, as the Laminated Chair.
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Designers who work for others frequently have to adapt their signature to the client. Or, as at Vitra, they are partners with equal rights, with whom one looks for the best solutions. That is no guarantee of success: Each and every product must discover its own being. Understanding that, and carefully channeling it is the art of design management.
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Without doubt: With their “Super Normal” project Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa are treading on uncertain ground. Here, each of the everyday objects they saw as being “super normal” becomes evidence, a plea for a different, cautious and considered style of design beyond pathos and modernistic masquerade: Be it a paper clip, a plastic bucket, or a chair.
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In design logic, reproduction is part of the concept. The most widespread misinterpretation of the term original in the field of design is withholding from it the copies of a draft from the beginnings of its production phase. Copyists represent this outlook – yet their arguments serve only to mislead.
