Every time has its chair

Events / Product design

Visitors to the Chair Terrace at Art Amsterdam will be pleasantly surprised by some chair design exclusives.

By Editor Design.nl / 12-05-2011

TIME is the central theme this year at Art Amsterdam's terrace with chairs by: Jurgen Bey, Jacco Bregonje, Khodi Feiz, Ineke Has, Richard Hutten, Studio Job, Joep van Lieshout (AVL), Tiddo de Ruiter, Wieki Somers and Henk Stallinga.

The Chair Terrace functions as a 'normal' terrace for visitors to Art Amsterdam while housing many design scoop's for those interested.

The theme of the terrace is a visual continuation of Max van Rooy's essay entitles Elke tijd zijn stoel (Every time has its chair) commissioned by stichting Zetel. The essay was designed by Melle Hammer as a modest publication co-initiated by Premsela, Dutch platform for design and fashion.

"Unlike any other piece of furniture, chairs are designed for and by human proportions. With rests for arms, legs that we call poten (Dutch slang for animal legs), a back and seat likening the human form. Look at a chair and you can see a person seated. Even literally, the chair is closer to us than any other furniture, we feel it with our body, experience its character, undergo its qualities," according to Max van Rooy.

The way people relate to sitting down is changing. But chairs always have the same basic function: offering a place to sit. With many anecdotes and original quotes, Van Rooy features over a century of striking chair designs in Elke tijd zijn stoel, from designs by Berlage himself to the New Berlage by Henk Stallinga. It is a book that shows why chairs are so meaningful. People and their chairs have a broad history.

Click on the images to enlarge

Main image: Ineke Hans for Ahrend
Other image: 1. Gothic chair by Studio Job for Moooi