Hasta La Ideas

Eindhoven studio Dutch Invertuals challenged 14 designers to rework one of its chairs for its Specimen exhibition, with the results including tree branches, copper fossils and LCD-style graphics.

Kiki van Eijk, Joost van Bleiswijk, Daphna Laurens and Earnest Studio are among those that have put their own spin on the armchair originally designed by Dutch Invertuals for an office interior.

Each designer or studio was asked to create a version of the chair that reflects their design expertise.

Founder Wendy Plomp initiated the project to mark the 15th anniversary of Dutch Invertuals, a studio known for its research-based approach to interior and exhibition design.

Dutch Invertuals unveiled the 15 chairs – the original and the 14 remixes – in an exhibition at its studio during Dutch Design Week, which took place in October.

The name, Specimen, gives the project a sense of a scientific experiment.

“The project showcases each designer’s expertise, craftmanship and personal style,” said the studio.

“Like biologists collect specimens to understand evolution, Dutch Invertuals invited 15 designers, highlighting each designer’s evolutionary process,” the studio added.

Plomp originally designed the armchair for an office interior at 5Tracks, a major new mixed-use development currently under construction in the Dutch city of Breda.

The chair comprises four artificial-leather cushions set into an ash plywood frame.

The interlocking details of this frame give the chair distinct details, including cross-shaped corners and projecting Ts at the points where the seat meets the sides.

Rachel Griffin of Rotterdam-based Earnest Studio translated these details into laser-cut aluminium, while Japanese designer Sho Ota created a version in solid hardwood.

Eindhoven-based designers Onno Adriaanse and Willem van Hooff worked with tree branches, one with oak and the other with maple, while Copenhagen-based Elly Feldstein created a woven seat with hemp rope.

Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Myeonga Seo experimented with hydro-dipped wood and metal, while Dutch designer Jeroen Wand added his Re-veneer, a surface covering made from offcuts of wood veneer.

The most unusual chairs came from German designer Anna Resei, whose design took cues from digital graphics, and Joost van Bleiswijk, who made his from neon-painted plywood shards.

A curved base turns the design by Eindhoven-based Edhv into a rocking chair, featuring copper buttons cast from fossils, while Kiki van Eijk used wax crayons to add colour to her design.

The remaining three, by designers Scheublin & Lindeman, Max Lipsey and Daphna Laurens, all explore different relationships between form, colour and textile.

Dutch Invertuals often stages exhibitions for Dutch Design Week, as well as in Milan.

Past examples include Slow-motion Flow, a fountain for a single drop of water, and Fundamentals, an archive of 800 objects.

For the Specimen exhibition, the studio also created an animation featuring all of their exhibitions from the past 15 years, as well as digital versions of all the chairs.

The photography is by Ronald Smits.

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