Vitra Miniature Metal Metal. Dimensions: L 15.5 x D 14.5 cm x H 13 cm.
“Located in Weil am Rhein in Germany (near the Swiss border), the Vitra Design
Museum is a privately funded museum that showcases the unique design collection
of the Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra. The Vitra Design Museum collection is
one of the most important furniture design collections in the world. It contains
around 7,000 pieces of furniture, more than a thousand lighting pieces,
numerous archives and the inherited series of famous designers such as Charles
& Ray Eames, Verner Panton and Alexander Girard. The Vitra Design
Museum's collection of miniatures, which started more than 20 years ago, is an
illustration of the milestones in the history of design. This collection
encompasses the entire history of industrial furniture from the 1800s to present
day, creating a pathway through time leading to the creation of modern seating,
from historicism and Art Nouveau to Bauhaus and New Objectivity, Radical Design
and Postmodernism to present day. A magnificent collection of emblematic works
is presented to you. These chairs that have taken their place in history all
carry the memories of their times: Materials, shapes, colours… They reveal the
often forgotten dreams of their time, the (sometimes utopian) aspirations of
their designers, but above all to their vision of the world. The chairs are
reproduced on a one-sixth scale and faithfully replicate the original historical
model down to the smallest details in the design, material and colour shade.
This precise detail is also applied to the wooden grain, the reproduction of the
screws and the meticulous methods of handcrafting. These miniatures are not only
valuable collector's items, but are also an educational tool for universities,
design schools and architects. Rolf Fehlbaum, President of Vitra: “We can
deduce and understand an era, its social order, its materials, its techniques
and its taste by observing its chairs. I should point out that no other
everyday object offers such diversity.” Israeli designer Ron Arad is known for
breaking away from the limits and codes of classical design. He likes to
question materials and industrial creation processes, by changing materials for
the same form or the creative value of the different stages of manufacturing. In
1986, the Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra asked him to create a piece: He
then made the Well Tempered Chair, a chair made of 4 tempered steel slats
assembled by butterfly nuts. Exhibited at the Milan Furniture Fair and
integrated into the Vitra collection, Ron Arad was then propelled into the world
of industrial design. The empirical dimension can be seen in this chair designed
as a paper cut-out model. The Well tempered chair by Ron Arad has generous
curved forms following in the footsteps of the revisited club chair. This chair
is made from four sheets of stainless steel formed by dipping. They are held
together by rivets to form the seat, backrest and two armrests. The sheet is
heated with a torch to bend it and maintain its modified state. It is drilled
and riveted, a technique that requires very few tools (done by hand). The rivets
create a rhythm and become a pattern. This accentuates the industrial aspect.
Manual processes are used to work materials used in industry: There is a removal
from its context, a shift from a raw aesthetic to the domestic world. From
2002 to 2009, Vitra reissued a version in synthetic materials and fibreglass
and called it Bad Tempered.
