Products Seven Firms Redesign One Iconic Chair

POSTED: 15 Aug, 2014

A competition and subsequent exhibition commemorates the 60th anniversary of the classic 1955 Arne Jacobsen “Sevener” chair design. See how they went.

How does Zaha Hadid, Hon. FAIA, rethink an Arne Jacobsen classic? What about Jean Nouvel, Hon. FAIA, Bjarke Ingels, and the team at Snøhetta? Fritz Hansen recently commissioned seven firms to put their own spin on the midcentury architect’s iconic Series 7 Chair (shown above). Designed for the Danish furniture maker in 1955, the chair—also known as the “Sevener”—was not originally intended for a specific project or application. That openness to interpretation has since invited its use across residential and commercial spaces as seating in dining areas, meeting rooms, work spaces, and even as a design object.

A competition and subsequent exhibition, “7 Cool Architects” commemorates the 60th anniversary of the chair’s design and features prototypes from Bjarke Ingels Group, in Copenhagen and New York; Carlos Ott Architects with Ponce de León Architects in Uruguay; Jean Nouvel Design, in Paris; Jun Igarashi Architects, in Saroma and Sapporo, Japan; Neri & Hu, in Shanghai; Snøhetta, in Oslo and New York; and Zaha Hadid Design, in London. The designs will be exhibited at the Design Museum Gent, in Belgium, before continuing on a global tour.


See full article: http://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/products/seven-firms-redesign-one-iconic-chair_o