“She said that you would be good at ‘Chairs’”.
“Chairs”?
“What like? designing them, or buying them, curating an exhibition of them or just writing about… ‘Chairs’.
Chairs are a real problem. They are all the same and are all different. The apparent success is to design a chair that is comfortable? But a chair that has enigmatic names attached to it – The Designer and the Maker – Designed by Achille Castiglioni / Made by Cassina; Designed by Phillippe Starck / Made by Kartell; Designed by Harry Bertoia / Made by Knoll – is a chair which is just super cool[1].
You once met Castiglioni on that college course trip to Milan, back in the early 1980s. You went to his office, and he sat across the desk; he was just laughing and sweating, probably wondering who you were; these youths from Scotland. Keen as mustard. Keen to show the maestros their ideas for lamps and chairs. You went to the Sottsass Associati office. You found you were in the same room as Ettore Sottsass, he sat at his desk across the room, surrounded by his colleagues. You quickly drew out some of your ideas on bits of paper; college projects, with felt pens, but he was too busy for you; they had bus shelters to get finished and fabricated for Verona. But you did hang out, with Taylor, Weil, Sowden and Du Pasquier from the office.
Your favourite chair is probably the Barcelona Chair, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1929; it features in city bank foyers, in the film, “A Star is Born” (1954) with Judy Garland, and in the installations of the artist Richard Hamilton. They had four in the Bank at St. Andrews Square. Also in the running are the redesigned ‘classic’ chairs by Alessandro Mendini. Taking on modernity and making ‘fun’ of their stiffness; creating an alternative version and in turn a ‘new classic’.
“She is right; you do love a chair”
“Yes, there is something about their scale to our bodies. They are quite subtle; formed and designed to such a fine degree that they look fragile but are engineered from materials that are strong and give you confidence”
“You don’t really want to end up on the floor!”
“They give your body a supportive but manipulative frame to make you ‘comfortable’, physically and mentally, making you feel good”
[1] Super cool? it’s subjective but you know it when you see it.
Iain Irving 