In
March, MoDiP was invited by the BPF to provide a short series of
webinars about classic design inspired by objects in the MoDiP
collection.
One of these talks was inspired by the Panton chair which was designed by Verner Panton in 1960 but the
example we have is much later and I will explain a bit more about that shortly
but let’s start by looking at the designer and his style.
Verner Panton was born in Denmark in 1926, he trained as an
architectural engineer at the Odense Technical School and studied at the Royal
Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In his early career, he was employed
by John Tommerup, Poul and Simon Henningsen, and Arne Jacobsen, before starting
his own design studio in 1955.
Initially he fitted out a Volkswagen minibus as a mobile
studio and drove around Europe to visit designers and manufacturers. This gave him an international outlook.
Below on the right at the
bottom you can see his first ‘plastic’ chair (click on the image to make it bigger) – the first of a series of
‘Plexiglass’ chairs 1960, and at the top his inflatable stool from 1961 both
from Plus-Linje.
Panton was known for bold,
cool, fun interiors which you can see him and his family in here. These are sculptural, experimental and
sensational. The image on the left of
the screen shows his living tower from 1968 with multiple sitting
positions. He wanted to provoke people into using their
imagination and to make their surroundings more exciting.
By reimaging ‘the chair’ with
its four legs Panton opened up design for others, he took risks and created
emotive products.
Colour was important
to Panton – he said ‘choosing colours should not be a gamble. It should be a
conscious decision. Colours have a meaning and a function.’
Panton was particularly
interested in experimenting with the new industrial materials and technologies
that emerged in the post-war period. He developed a cantilever chair in wood
during the 1950s but was interested in creating a similar seat in plastics.
Apparently, a stack of plastic
buckets in a factory inspired Panton to design a stackable chair made using
plastic. He was now moving away from wood which was one of the materials
favoured by his contemporaries.
By 1960, Panton had designed a chair that could potentially
be mass-produced in a single piece, but due to technical difficulties arising
from the use of the chosen material, rigid polyurethane foam, it was not
successful. He worked closely with Danish plastics
manufacturer Dansk Akrylteknik who created a prototype in 1962 but not ready
for mass-production
The chair was not adapted for commercial production until
1967, when an injection moulded glass-reinforced polyester
version was marketed in six colours applied after moulding, this chair was very
heavy with high production costs due to there being lots of finishing required.
In 1970, the material was changed to Luran-S, a trade name
for ASA (Styrene Acrylonitrile Copolymers), an injection moulded,
non-reinforced thermoplastic. There was then a long break in production when
the chair fell out of favour in the 1970s. Only to be reissued in the 1990s and
is still in mass-production today with new colourways, including a recently
introduction glow in the dark version, however, this is achieved by applying 5
layers of phosphorescent varnish by hand to the moulded chair so not really in
the spirit of the design.
Panton was quoted as stating in 1969 that he believed that
the status of objects would change and be questioned, seeing individual pieces
become less important and that he was ‘certain that within five to eight years’
time suites of furniture will be made in one piece.’
Ironically, his own chair has become important and iconic,
stylish and desirable.
If you look closely on the underside of this black version
you can see the structural ribbing which was used in earlier Luran S versions
to provide strength in a vulnerable part of the chair – this is not needed in
later iterations.
There are a number of
ways in which we you can tell when a design has become an icon, one is when it
is used in other art forms:
The photographer Brian Duffy
used the chair in 1971 in this provocative photo sequence “How to undress in
front of your husband” which was published in Nova magazine. In the 1990s the model Kate Moss was photographed
naked on a Panton chair for the front cover of Vogue magazine.
Of course, there
should be a nod towards the objectification of women, but that it is for
another day. But from the chairs point of view it is still being seen as sexy
over period of more than 20 years.
In 2010 Vitra launched a national Panton Chair Competition.
In the search for the best customized Panton Chair, architects and designers
were asked to present their unique idea for the classic design piece.
All 31 entries were auctioned after
the competition and the proceeds went to the charity Shelter.
Here are the top 3
from Jump Studios, Ben Adams Architects and Maris Interiors.
The chair is still produced today and used in a variety of
settings. As we look at this white
interior, I want you to think back to Panton’s own interior style – they
couldn’t be any more different and yet what links them is the classic, timeless
chair.
In contrast I would like to share some of the other chairs we have in the MoDiP collection. The
chair at the top is the E Series chair was originally designed by Robin Day in
1971 and was based on his Polypropylene chair from 1963. The polypropylene
chair was the first mass -produced injection moulded polypropylene shell chair
in the world. The same seat could be
used with different legs or mounted in stadium terracing. This particular form of the seat was created
for the educational setting.The Hembury chair is
designed and made by Solidwool, a company based in Buckfastleigh, Devon. The
company was conscious that sheep farmers were struggling with a diminishing
market for the coarse fleeces of hill and moorland sheep, and they wanted to
bring industry back to the area. They now produce hand crafted furniture using
a bio-composite material, developed by them, which uses wool as the reinforcing
ingredient in a bio-based resin.
The Flux Junior is a
child's version of the one-piece folding Flux Chair. This innovative design started
off as a graduation project of Douwe Jacobs. It is made from a single piece of
flat polypropylene which is then folded up and slotted together.
The chair at the
bottom is made in five blow moulded parts.
After blow moulding the legs and seat, the hollow space is filled with
high pressure air which creates strong, structural components. This method of
production means the use of the PET it is made of is kept to a minimum and the
total weight of the chair is only about 1kg.
The last
two that I would like to show you are these stools
The Oneshot is 3D printed in one piece – not as separate
pieces that are then assembled. From a folded position, a gentle push on the
central handle makes the piece untwist and unfold into a stool. From an open
position, the stool can be returned to its storage position by lifting the
handle.
Tom
Dixon’s Fresh Fat chair is interesting because it is made of extruded PETG,
which is extremely glossy. The material
is then hand-looped meaning that each chair is different with the style of the
looping being like an individual’s handwriting.
The image on the left shows where the material has been cut at the end
of the process, which I think is a really special feature showing the chair’s
handmadeness.
Louise Dennis, Curator of MoDiP
