Tag: Architecture School TU Delft

Finally: Wall of Designer Chairs at BK City, TU Delft


Chair insiders (should) know that Delft Architecture Faculty (In Dutch Faculteit Bouwkunde, or abbreviated BK for Bouw Kunde) of Delft Technical University (TU Delft) in The Netherlands has a famous collection of designer chairs.

On May 13, 2008 The Delft Architecture Faculty got a lot of egg on its face when its building burnt down. Every newspaper all of a sudden asked whether the chair collection would be lost forever. Luckily that was not the case.

Now the collection has found a permanent exhibition place finally. I’d missed it:

Event: Faculty of Architecture to open permanent exhibition of famous chair collection

05 October 2010 | 16:00 o’clock
location: Faculteit Bouwkunde

Paul Schnabel is to open the new permanent exhibition of TU Delft Faculty of Architecture’s famous chair collection on 5 October. The extensive collection, which is very important from a historical point of view, has now been given a place of honor in the Faculty of Architecture’s new premises in Julianalaan in Delft with financial support from the Sofa Foundation.

Programme opening
16:00 Welcome by Dean Wytze Patijn;
16:10 Sofa’s last trick;
16:20 Opening ceremony conducted by Paul Schnabel;
16:35 Drinks at the exhibition.

But I’ve noticed it via Design.nl.

Kossmann De Jong realized the Wall of Chairs which was facilitated with a grant from the Sofa Foundation.

It seems that the site from the Sofa Foundation Stichting Sofa doesn’t work propely today, but some history can be found at Johannes Niemeijer‘s site. Nowadays the Sofa Foundation seems to be administered by the Prince Bernhard Culture Foundation.

During working days the exhibition is open to the public and without charge. It’s address is

BK City (next to the Library)
Julianalaan 143
Delft.

I might as well pay it a visit soon.

A Royal Throne by the Horrix Brothers – Meubelenfabriek Anna Palowna

Horrix Throne King William III NL

Two brothers, Matthieu (1815-1889) and Willem Horrix (1816-1881) started to build their furniture manufacturing company, Meubelenfabriek Anna Palowna, in The Hague, The Netherlands, in 1850. The company was closed in 1890 after Matthieu died. Matthieu was the designer of the two. They had their training in the family business and in Paris. One of their famous chairs, a royal throne used at the coronation of William III as King of The Netherlands belongs to the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Horrix

I found this Horrix sofa photo somewhere on the Internet. Ah I now see the photo is probably from the The Hague Notary Public Auction House (Venduhuis der Notarissen) where two of these canapes were sold for Euro 800.- and Euro 900.- respectively in May 2007.

Two Horrix chairs can be found in the Delft Technical University Chair Collection (Architecture School TU Delft) .

010 publishers – Catalogue of the Chair collection of the Delft Technical University Architecture Faculty

Chairs

Catalogue of the Delft Faculty of Architecture Collection

Written by Otakar Mácel, Sander Woertman, Charlotte van Wijk
Photography by Hans Schouten
Designed by Joost Grootens

English
272 pp / 240 x 170 mm / paperback
price € 24.50
ISBN 978 90 6450 619 2
published 2008, recent

Comprising the effort of more than a century of collecting chairs, the Faculty of Architecture of the TU Delft can pride itself on having one of the major furniture collections in the Netherlands. Set up as an educational tool, the collection has offered knowledge about materials, construction and typology to students and designers. In the catalogue, the entire collection of over 240 chairs is presented for the first time. Each object is accompanied by images and a thorough description. Also, the book offers comprehensive texts on key designs in the collection, showing the diversity of the collection which consists of world famous designs, 17th, 18th and 19th century designs, everyday household chairs and rare pieces of furniture that have never been published before. Among the designers presented are Verner Panton, Gerrit Th. Rietveld, Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Jean Prouvé, Marcel Breuer and Droog Design.

Via 010 publishers

Lucky the collection was not burnt when the faculty building burnt down.