Rolf Fehlbaum: The “Chair” Man

Rolf Fehlbaum, the CEO of Vitra is the “Chair” man. Very modestly he explains the why and how of a manufacturing company which started with chairs from Eames and went on and on with an impressive campus with buildings by world famous architects and it’s own design museum.

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…

Less Chair with the Chairless by Alejandro Aravena

Vitra introduced Chairless, a sitting strap only, designed by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena in Milan.

Aravena was inspired by a similar sitting strap commonly used by the Ayoreo Indians living in the border region between Paraguay and Bolivia. A portion of the proceeds from Chairless will go to the non-profit Foundation for Paraguayan Indian Communities, for support of the Ayoreo Indians.

Via Cool Hunting

Social Media and the MVS Chaise by Maarten Van Severen

At least for me this is a good example how social media work:

  • I’m browsing the site of chair manufacturer Vitra.
  • There I find the photo that a fan, De Pauw from Florida, has send to Vitra upon a request from Vitra.
  • I recognized it to be a Van Severen chair.
  • I’m already a huge fan of Maarten Van Severen.
  • I check the site for more details about the chair (maybe I can publish about it here).
  • Find a nice photo of the chaise itself:

But then I also see this photo:

And you know what? It’s multi functional: As a recliner and as a daybed and for use indoors and outdoors!

So I’m sold. On the basis of these three photos I believe I have to have this multi-functional chaise for my terrace…

My next Work In Progress is trying to copy and paste the photo in a photo of my terrace and then find an opportunity to look at the chair in real life.

I have put it on my Vitra Wish List……even while I don’t know the price yet…

.06 Easy Chair by Maarten van Severen

Regular readers know I’m a huge fan of Maarten van Severen who passed away much to early in 2005.

Oops! I’ve had to change some posts here, because I had misspelled Maarten van Severen’s name. My first mistake was that I believed that his name was Van Seventer, then I thought it was Van Sevener….all wrong. I believe the reason was the wrong connotation it has with the Dutch word Zeveren, which means so much as nag or moan. Sorry Maarten. Anyway I pinched this photo from the Vitra site which is getting better and better nowadays while they use less and less flash…