Hasta La Ideas

Industrial design student Jeong Yong has created a pair of chairs with grid-like frames based on traditional Korean furniture.

“I was inspired by the patterns which are normally used for Korean traditional house and furniture,” Jeong Yong told Dezeen.

“I believe that Korean traditional houses and furniture are practical, and the balance between straight lines and curves of the pattern makes it more beautiful.”

One chair is lower and wider than the other, and Jeong Yong has personified the set by naming it King and Queen Chair.

“The King is not too fancy but has strong facial impression. However, the Queen is more fancy and at the same time she lowers her position to warm a embrace,” the designer said.

The chair is made from sepetir wood and will come in black or white.

Jeong Yong is due to graduate next year from Konkuk University Glocal Campus in Seoul.

Other chairs we’ve published recently include one with a backrest and seat wrapped in thick lengths of cord and another with bird-shaped armrests.

See all our stories about chairs »

The post King and Queen Chair
by Jeong Yong appeared first on Dezeen.

Movie: Designer Konstantin Grcic tells Dezeen that American furniture company Emeco had to industrialise its production methods to produce his new Parrish chair in this video interview filmed in Milan. 

Grcic originally designed the Parrish chair as part of a range of furniture for Herzog & de Meuron’s barn-like Parrish Art Museum on Long Island, completed in 2012.

The chair was launched by American furniture company Emeco as a commercial product at Milan earlier this year.

In the movie, Grcic explains that he approached Emeco to produce the chair because of its experience of working in aluminium, most famously with the iconic Navy Chair, which Emeco has produced since 1944.

“I felt we needed a company to support the development of the project,” says Grcic.

“Emeco stands for chairs in aluminium and aluminium was the perfect material for the chair that we had in mind because the [Parrish Art Museum] is very open [to the elements].”

Unlike the Navy Chair, in which each piece is welded together by hand, the legs, armrests and backrest of the Parrish chair are all locked together by a single joint under the seat.

“Everything is mechanically joined to a central core, a piece of die-cast aluminium, which is really the heart of the chair,” Grcic explains.

“So we have one moulded piece that solves all of the structure of the chair and the seat is exchangeable. You can have an upholstered seat, a plastic seat or a wooden seat.”

Grcic says that he deliberately wanted to move Emeco away from the time-intensive production methods involved in producing the Navy Chair.

“I felt we should actually change the way [Emeco] makes chairs,” he says. “Industrialise it, simplify it, eliminate all the dirty work, all the hand labour. That’s what really informed the concept of the chair.”

He concludes: “Emeco will always produce the Navy Chair in the way they produce it, but I think now we’ve established another form of production inside their company.”

See all our stories about Konstantin Grcic »
See all our stories about Emeco »

See all our Milan 2013 coverage »
Watch our Dezeen and MINI World Tour video reports from Milan »

The post “I felt we should change the way Emeco
makes chairs” – Konstantin Grcic appeared first on Dezeen.

Danish designer Trine Kjaer has created a chair with a backrest and seat wrapped in thick lengths of cord intertwined with thin strands of copper.

Trine Kjaer upholstered the Haptic chair with foam under the threads on the seat and backrest. The oak arms and legs resembe slender tree branches.

Kjaer is based in Værløse north of Copenhagen and said the project is the result of an extensive process of analysing, experimenting and interpreting tactile surfaces in nature. “The project focuses on the haptic processes of the sense of touch as well as how we are drawn towards the object wanting to explore it by hand, activating the sense of touch and feeling the tactile differences of the chair,” said the designer.

“The chair is designed to stimulate the hands with fine and detailed craftsmanship, while the areas touching the back and the seat have a rougher and more tactile character,” she said.

Other seating on Dezeen includes a group with seats and backs moulded from lightweight 3D plywood, a chair designed in the shape of a tongue and brightly coloured angular lounges and ottomans.

See more seating »
See more furniture »

The post Haptic Chair by
Trine Kjaer Design Studio appeared first on Dezeen.

German design graduate Tobias Nitsche has developed a chair with a seat and back moulded from lightweight 3D plywood.

The moulded parts are made from thin plywood veneer that can be shaped when heated into tight curves to stiffen the material so additional bracing is not required.

“More deformation means more stability in a chair with less material,” explains Tobias Nitsche, who designed the chair during his studies at ECAL in Lausanne.

Working with veneer specialists at German company, Danzer, he was able to explore forms that achieve the necessary rigidity without cracking the wood.

Four CNC-milled wooden blocks join the legs to the seat and the back is attached using wooden dowels so only one material is required to produce the chair.

“For me the challange was to find a language that translates the characteristics of the material into an object that is light, stable and visualises comfort,” says Nietsche.

The result is a chair suited to use in bars, restaurants or other venues where furniture is frequently moved around and stacked.

Earlier this week we featured the rerelease of Arne Jacobsen’s classic plywood Tongue chair, while Berlin’s Eric and Johnny Design Studio showed a plywood chair with a structure inspired by I-beams at this year’s imm Cologne.

See more chairs »
See more plywood »

Here’s a short description from the designer:

Boss is a plywood chair that combines traditional woodworking techniques with the use of 3d plywood.

I worked in cooperation with the German company Danzer who is producing the material. Using their technology gives the chance to construct a plywood chair with a more radical curvature.

The thin plywood parts are stiffened by their three dimensional moulding. Four rods complete the construction.

Like that I designed a chair that is made only from wood and is at the same time light and stable. It’s visual language has never been seen in wood before.

The post Boss Chair by
Tobias Nitsche appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: Danish furniture brand Howe has relaunched Arne Jacobsen’s classic Tongue chair, which was designed in 1955.

Howe has replicated the exact appearance of the original design and reproduced it using contemporary manufacturing techniques to address stability and durability concerns.

Jacobsen designed the chair for the Munkegård School in his native Denmark, but it was not produced commercially until the late 1980s and was withdrawn after just a few years.

Tongue was the second chair designed by Jacobsen, shortly after his famous Ant chair, but it never achieved the same widespread distribution as many of his other furniture designs.

It was used in the rooms of Jacobsen’s famous SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, for which a modified bar stool version was also produced.

The relaunched Tongue chair is available in several veneers or with fabric or leather upholstery. Legs are chrome or powder-coated steel.

Last summer, Arne Jacobsen’s iconic Ant chair was reinterpreted by designers and artists including Paul Smith, Quentin Blake, Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen and Tracey Emin and the results auctioned to raise money for Jamie Oliver’s Better Food Foundation. Paul Smith has also reworked Jacobsen’s Cylinda Line coffee pots, adding signature brightly-coloured handles.

See more chair design »
See more design by Arne Jacobsen »

Here’s some more information from Howe:

We fell truly, madly in love with the Tongue chair

The company struck by love is HOWE a/s, who relaunched the cutely named chair at this year’s fair in Milan. The Tongue was designed in 1955 by the renowned Arne Jacobsen, but it has not been in production for several years. Now HOWE a/s can proudly say that a Danish design classic has returned.

Arne Jacobsen is one of the most famous and most loveable Danish architects and designers. Known for marvellous architectural works, legendary furniture designs, and versatile industrial designs, Arne Jacobsen has truly left his mark on the international world of design and architecture.

The Tongue chair is a classic Arne Jacobsen design. It has the immediately recognisable characteristics of the organic wave-form in the seat; complemented with highly sculptural, splayed legs. And with the addition of modern construction techniques for additional strength, HOWE has ensured that the chair keeps its lovely curved, sculptural form perfectly in place.

The Tongue chair is available in beech, oak and walnut veneers as well as in stained veneer in black, white and teak. The Tongue is also available in full upholstery in both fabrics and leather – the colour palette ranges from light pink to cognac. The legs come in chrome or in black or white powder coating. The price begins at €486.

The post Tongue chair by Arne Jacobsen
relaunched by Howe appeared first on Dezeen.