Social Seating

Sitting as a collective experience

German architect Stephan Braunfels’ towering rotunda building, which forms the circular entrance hall to Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne, has become more social and interactive in recent months thanks to a lively installation encouraging guests to linger in its lobby. Entitled ‘Social Seating’, the unique year-long exhibition sees seating solutions of all shapes and sizes artfully placed throughout the sprawling sunlit space. Here, visitors heading to one of the German institute’s many exhibitions pause in the entrance area on sturdy seating, such as a classic Bavarian beer garden bench, or recline more playfully amidst the flexible foam protrusions resembling giant blades of grass that make up the 1960s sculptural sofa by the Italian collective Gruppo Strum.
‘It’s a setting that brings people together in the urban space, and you really do see how the seating designs inspire strangers to mix and mingle,’ explains Xenia Riemann-Tyroller, curator at Munich’s Design Museum and one of the three curators behind the project. ‘On the other hand, it can also be a place to hide away, where you’ll find peace and quiet,’ she adds, noting one regular guest who often ends up taking daytime naps while reclining on the sumptuous 1972 Swiss leather sofa made by De Sede in Klingnau.

Besides providing an opportunity for respite and reflection, Riemann-Tyroller says the key intention of ‘Social Seating’ is to show a diverse audience the power that good industrial design can have in turning something as ubiquitous as a chair or sofa into a tool to encourage and facilitate social interaction. One piece exemplifying these virtues is Landen by Konstantin Grcic, a 2007 Vitra Edition on loan from the Vitra Design Museum. With four seats all facing inward and a shared footrest at its centre, the solution prompts spontaneous social interaction between those who clamber onto the piece. Another is Verner Panton’s Cloverleaf Sofa, whose bold, curvy organic design gained prominence as an icon of the Swinging Sixties. In the ‘Social Seating’ installation, this stand-out piece’s sculptural form and flexible layout not only foster interaction but also serve as a functional piece of art within the space.
With more recent pieces on show, such as Verena Hennig’s playful Bank Roll Collection (with actual rollers on the seating surface allowing users to slide towards and away from each other), the exhibition offers an opportunity to see the myriad ways seating design has been executed over time. Importantly, Riemann-Tyroller highlights how the ‘landscapes’ of social seating have evolved throughout the decades, particularly in relation to the sofa, which is actually more of a shape-shifting design than we might consider. ‘You might think the idea of «modular» sofas that you can adjust and move around is quite new, but the thinking really began in the aftermath of World War II,’ she says. ‘Another big shift we’ve seen over time in sofa design is that there is a tendency for people to sit lower, in a cosier fashion, and so the landscapes of this type of seating have really evolved over the years.’

The evolving social dynamics of seating and its role in bringing people together is a topic increasingly spotlighted in the design world. Another recent success story was Panter&Tourron’s ‘Diurno’ installation at this year’s Milan Design Week. Dubbed a ‘secret space’, it invited guests to relax away from the intensity of the busy design event, in a large sunken lounge pit. By lowering the seating elements closer to the floor, the installation joyfully created a relaxing, but intimate zone where the physical distance between guests was minimised and closer connections were formed. Seating design, it seems, will remain a social pursuit for years to come.
The new Anagram Sofa, by Panter&Tourron for Vitra is another example of exploring the concept of social seating.

Publication date: 30.10.2024
Images: Installation views of Social Seating - Rotundenprojekt Nr. 9, photos: Die Neue Sammlung - The Design Museum, Jasmin Minne; 1., 6. Verner Panton, Sofa Cloverleaf, 1969, Verpan, Horsens, DNK © Verner Panton Design AG / Design by Verner Panton / Produced under license by Verpan A/S; 2., 4. Ueli Berger, Eleonore Peduzzi Riva, Heinz Ulrich, Klaus Vogt, Sitzschlange DS-600, 1972, de Sede, Klingnau, CHE, Leihgabe de Sede; 3. Gruppo Strum (Giorgio Ceretti, Pietro Derossi, Riccardo Rosso), Sitzobjekt Pratone Forever Greener, 1966 / 2021, Gufram, Barolo, ITA; 5. Konstantin Grcic, Bank Landen, 2007, Vitra Edition, Birsfelden, CHE, Leihgabe Vitra Design Museum; 7., 8. © Vitra, photo: Dejan Jovanovic

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