Delft University of Technology

Chairs on : Mark Pimlott

Pimlott, Mark; Neumann, Malgorzata

Publication date 2017 Document Version Final published version Published in Off the shelf

Citation (APA) Pimlott, M., & Neumann, M. (2017). Chairs on Chairs: Mark Pimlott. In C. van Wijk (Ed.), Off the shelf: Projects surrounding the collection at the faculty of Architecture (pp. 81-83). TU Delft Open.

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OFF THE SHELBY c-'

PROJECTS SURR/J THE CHAIR COLLfCTIO' THEFACULTYOFARCHITEtJtURE I 1 TABLEOFCONTENTS

5 Preface Carola Hein

PARTLTAKEASEAT

6 The Significance of University Collections Charlotte van iVijk

11 Architectural Pedagogy Charlotte van Wijk & Elise van Dooren

IS The Music of Chairs Patrick Healy

PARTII:TAKEASEATINEDUCATION

24 Designing Tables and Lamps for the Chair Collection Peter Koorstra & Robert Nottrot

54 Chairs and Sets Jtirjen Zijnstra

PARTIII:TAKEASEATINEXHIBITIONS,REALANDVIRTUAL

64 Chairs on Chairs Introduction Charlotte van JVij'k

69 Chairs on Chairs Interviews by Malgorzata Neumann with Ulrich Knaack, Peter Koorstra, Susanne Komossa, Mark Pimlott, Tom Avermaete, Alexander Koutamanis

82 Pop-Up Exhibitions COLOPHON

Off The Shelf:

Projects Surrounding the Chair Collection at the Faculty of Architecture

Issue 1 / 2016-2017

Editor: Charlotte van Wijk Design 8c Layout: Nico Schouten and Olivia Forty Chair photos by Hans Schouten: pp. 22,23,26,27,29,35,39,47,53,68,69,71,73,75, 79, 81 Photos of sets by Max Hart Nibbrig: pp. 58,60-65

This publication consists of the work of several studios at the faculty of Architecture and the built environment. These studios focus on the use of the chair collection currendy present at said faculty. With this publication we hope to give insight in the different projects surrounding the chair collection and the work of the program. The different sections are accompanied by short introductions by the respectable teachers or coordinators.

©2017TU Delft Open ISBN: 978-94-92516-69-5 CHAIRS ON CHAIRS: MARK PIMLOTT

Do you have a favourite chair in the Chair Collection?

I have a shorriist of favourite chairs, which is rather long. If I have to choose, I would say that my favourite one is the superlight or 'Superleggera' chair designed by Gio Ponti in the early 1950s. What I particularly Hke about it is that it hangs on to the image of the conventional Italian chair due to its styUng. On the other hand, it looks very modern, like from the space age. Saying 'being modern is being old, too' suits it very well. And this is constandy happening in Ponti's work. He is experimental, radical, and at the same time, traditionally Italian. It is very difficult to have one of his chairs at one's disposal, so the fact that we have it in the chair collection at TU Delft is special.

The Superleggera chair is my favourite, but there are more on my list. For example, JJP's Oud

easy chair' from 1933, which is Bertoia 'wire chair' (1950-52) are like sculptures can still be called chairs'? very comfortable, is a chair I used favourites of mine. I am also really to sit on it all the time in our office interested in Thonet's bentwood and I think they can sometimes be of Interiors in the old building. cane chairs and, among others by brilliant as ideas. It is impossible Fortunately, they put it in the Achille Castiglione that are not in to sit on the Rietvield chair, but it basement before the fire, so it has the collection, a milking chair. is nice to see it in the room. I have survived. Also, Marcel's Breuer a bit of a chair collection myself '' (1929-30) or Harry's Do you think that chairs that look more and among them there are some

Take a in Education, Real and J^irtiial \ 81 chairs which you really cannot sit on because, in fact, it takes quite a lot chair in the chair coUection, created comfortably.They look great, though. of time, effort, and failure to learn for military camping. It can be taken I don't have any kind of moral stand how to design something like a apart very easily, folded up and against chairs you cannot use. They chair. The second exercise, learning carried away. First of all, it teUs us are important players, like pets in the from a chair that works about how it about how the miHtary campaign house. They have a symbolic value works, was a fantastic education, and were being fought, but also, its while taking a special place at the one worth following as model for a elegant profile reminds me of the or standing somewhere next to student project. profile of furniture you would see the window. I am fine with that. I am depicted on walls of tombs or on a big supporter of the useless chairs. When I started teaching I carried papyruses in ancient Egypt. There out a little course, during which I is a deep historical fecHng in it, and Do you think that students who study used to point to one of the standard about some 19th century furniture, architecture shoidd design a chair at TU chairs and ask students: What that it has been around forever. I some point in their education f What are we looking at? What is this? Hke furniture that aUudes to faraway could they learn from it? Why is it shaped Hke that? What places, like this bamboo and rattan does it remind you of? I asked about furniture from the collection. There My answer is going to be an a standard, non-designed chair, a bit is a Swedish company, SvensktTenn, anecdotal one. After I graduated, like asking about the kind of chair which made a lot of furniture of this I was woridng in an office and I which Le Corbusier typically used in type in the early 20th century. The had to design a piece of furniture. I his drawings. He called it un objet- pieces were very suggestive. The fact designed a chair. It looked great in type, an anonymous object. There that in Sweden they would have the plan and elevations, but when are many of these in the coUection, been very popular items in certain we prototyped it, it was hopeless to office chairs and folding stools, and social circles, meant that people who use. There was too much material, they are very important for me. They owned it would have been a part of it was very elaborate and heavy. are very efficient in the way they worldwide economy; they wanted to Then, my employer ordered me to communicate to users and usually evoke a feeling of'elsewhere'in their create a copy of a Biedermeier chair they have a cultural signifier within homes. And that is very beautiful from 1830s-1840s. Biedermeier is them. They contain some ideas and thing that chairs can do. German, neo-classical, usually made represent how we live in those ideas. of light wood; this chair was a classic I think that especially non-designed Can chairs tell stories? axe-head design. I was obliged to chairs can give that information lookat it and measure it very carefully, away much more rapidly than chairs Yes, and I am very interested in re-draw it and re-make it. That was which are designed by architects. furniture that tells us a story about such a fantastic process. It taught me With students I examined aU the the culture that created it, the stories about the form and technique, about different cultural contributions to behind furniture, and chairs, are all the essential parts of a chair that shape and design of this kind of interesting and odd. In 1893, a big held it together and made it strong chair. The standard chairs are not exhibition took place in Chicago; and comfortable. The proportions my favourites in the collection, but the Americans were insecure about had to be very precise and even the I know that they are the friendliest what to show. They presented most tiny element was essential for ones. some buildings that looked Hke the chair. The first exercise, which European buildings reminiscent of compares to the task that might It is often very practical furniture cakes, but coincidentally, they also be set for a student, of just trying which teUs us something about the showed standard stuff like tractors, to design a chair is a difficult one world it came from. There is a field equipment, tools, chairs, etc. When

82 I Take a &eat in Education, Real and Virtual the Germans came to the exhibition the cultural environment. At the When I started architecture school, they were much more interested university everything tends to be I thought the coolest thing was the in these standard objects, than in straightforward, scientific. Chairs Wassily Chair designed by Marcel the buildings. The people from the are complicated and it doesn't make Breuer. I thought it was cool because Deutsche Werkbund, who were them bad, it makes them good, it was said to be everything that solemnly dedicated to efficient and although I think there is this notion was modern. At that time I was functional furniture, were very much in the air that something that is too also attached to the 60s chairs, the inspired by unconscious American complex is not worth hearing about. plastic stuff that looked like it was production. So, in the chair collection from the Space Age. Aso, I had a you can find this German chair What about the woi-ldwidephenomenon longing to the 60s furniture because from the 30s, which is an incredibly of Ikea? It is available everywhere - when I was a child I really wanted heavy article deriving from German people use this furniture designed, or to live in Space. For example, the architects' reading or understanding copy-designed, in Sweden. What does Selene chair by Vico Magistretti of American standard models. The it tell us about those countries' cultures? or the transparent folding chair by communication that happens now Giancario Piretti were inspiring on a global level between different It is interesting that you pointed out parts of my fantasy world. cultures through mass-produced Ikea, because Ikea adjusts production designs is a very special aspect of of the things they offer depending Which leaders in chair design do you chairs. on where it sells them. For instance, appreciate nowadays? in England they sell stuff that looks I've been reading a beautiful book, older because people there cannot There are various designers: A History of the World in 100 handle 'the modern. There are also Konstantin Grcic, who designs Objects' by Neil MacGregor, the countries that are naturally more unspeakably uncomfortable, but recently-retired director of the adventurous than the others. Each great, chairs. The late Maarten Van British Museum, and it is a story different country absorbs products Severen, whose chair is everywhere about a hundred items from the of Ikea, which, in turn, consist in this building, with a rubber seat British Museum's collection, from of many other influences. Ikea and the legs that stick out; Patricia ancient times to more or less the borrows from enormous range of Urquiola, who is a great designer; present moment. He unlocks these representations of other, carefully there is a trio called Atherr, Molina, objects' great significance and what designed furniture. Its products are Lievore, who design these Idnds of they say about themselves, about cheap, of course, it helps to sell them 'nostalgic'modern chairs. And I have the cultures where they were made. more easily, and through them, Ikea the greatest—paradoxical—respect I haven't come across a chair yet, can communicate immediately to for Philippe Starck, who seems to but certainly every artefact has a its audiences. The function of the be a very silly man but understands lot to tell us, it has a powerful role standard objects wiH be always the how objects communicate very well. to play. I think it is amazing that same, but they are all subtly different I have one of his chairs, the Costes we have the chair collection at TU in each country. Distinctness of each chair, which was designed for the Delft, particularly because chairs culture will always have an impact, Café Costes in Paris in the 80s. are not straightforward objects. even in the age of globalization. There are also designers like Piero They appear to be straightforward Lissoni. There are many inventions, because they are just chairs, but Do you think you would have chosen the but not many of them strike you as they play an important role in same favourite chair 10, 20 years ago, being chairs that will continue to the environment they are in: the in the beginning of your architectural cause you think about them in years immediate environment, but also career? ahead.

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