Panton Chair 50ieth Anniversary Variations

My Fave

The competition winner by Jump Studios

A mirrored one

And a holed one

From the Vitra site I learned that the Panton Chair had a long incubation period. So it’s not easy to pinpoint its start. However, in 2010 they decided to celebrate the chair’s 50ieth anniversary. Via Bustler I learned the UK representative of Vitra had invited various British designers to give an interpretation of the Panton Chair at the occasion of this 50ieth anniversary. They received 31 entries. On July 1m 2010 all 31 entries were auctioned. The proceedings of about £ 10’000 were passed onto Shelter.
Space Invading features 24 entries. You can find them on Facebook as well and guess what? That’s the Vitra Facebook page. I don’t understand why they didn’t feature this on their site…

Panton Chair Sliced by Chriss Bosse

After – or even while – Rem D. Koolhaas had 3D scanned it and morphed it into United Nude’s Lo Res chair, Chris Bosse now has sliced up the 1967 Panton Chair as part of the Re-loved: designer stories exhibition at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum that runs from 31 July – 30 September 2010 during the Sidney Design Festival.

Bosse, director of architectural firm LAVA, is one of several designers commissioned by the Powerhouse to use a pre-loved chair to tell a story about a piece of furniture they love.

“We’ve chosen to represent this shape as slices, similar to an MRI scan in order to make visible its complex 3dimensional geometry. The chair is metaphorically and physically carved out of a sliced box, ” says Bosse.

via LAVA’s Blog.

Lo Res Chair by United Nude

The story behind this Lo Res Chair by United Nude is quite interesting:

United Nude is a brand founded by Dutch architect and designer Rem D. Koolhaas (not the Rem Koolhaas of OMA who is Rem D.’s uncle) and British 7th generation of famous shoe makers Galahad Clark. (I’ve walked on several of their Desert Boots).

The first shoe of United Nude is the Möbius shoe which was inspired by a chair, the Barcelona Chair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Now United Nude has teamed up with Rapidform and formed Lo Res Project. They had used Rapidform already to design several shoes and took this one step further. They scanned an existing design, in this case the Panton Chair and morphed it into something else.

So the circle is round: The designer who initially was inspired by a chair to design a shoe was now inspired by the design process of his shoes to create a chair.

Bachelor Chair by Verner Panton

Photo © Panton Design, Basel
And then, to my utter delight, I find a Swiss based portal totally devoted to the life and work of Verner Panton which, unlike the fan site of Verner Panton, is not built on the infamous flash.

The Bachelor Armchair was designed between 1953-1955. It can be taken apart (hence probably the name) and consists of bent steel tubes in N-form connected by crossbars. In fabric or suede upholstery, with or without cushion.

Fabric colours: turquoise, blue, red, yellow, brown and black.
Material: chrome-plated steel tubing
Fabric: poplin or leather/foam
Cover: sailcloth, suede or vinelle
Manufacturer: Fritz Hansen, DK

Via We Are Private [but the actual post disappeared]

Pantonic 5010 Chair by Verner Panton

Pantonic 5010 Chair in Black by Verner Panton

Estimate £2,000 – £3,000 ($3,032 – $4,548)

Sale 5533
20th Century Decorative Art & Design
24 March 2010
London, South Kensington

VERNER PANTON (1926-1998)
‘PANTONIC 5010’ CHAIR, DESIGNED 1992
for Studio Hag, laminated and stained beech
35 in. (89 cm.) high

Via Christie’s.