Kunsthalle Wien had a need for a conference chair.
For the 'Was ist Loos?' exhibition a chair was developed for production by Gebrüder Thonet Wien based on both manual and digital production methods. The chair can be stacked and places in rows for talks and events.
Apart from practical and technical considerations the story is also very much about designer, maker and client. The combination of a designed chair for cultural Viennese spot and Gebrüder Thonet Vienna as a manufacturer gives the project a historical touch and a profound and meaningful depth that goes further than designing again another chair.
Kunsthalle Wien chair refers to the rich historical context of Thonet as a producer of chairs for cultural venues in Vienna with designers such as Loos, Wagner and Hoffmann who challenged design at their time and whose designs are still part of the Gebrüder Thonet collection.
For the first time in ages a Thonet chair was designed again for a cultural place in Vienna making the story round and sound.
The chair is partly made via one of the first mass-produced furniture processes: steam-bending wood. This process is still vital but looking at production nowadays it is also regarded as a process with a lot of hand work. To counterbalance costs and to make a viable product today, it needed different solutions. Therefore also digital means of production are applied.
commision: Kunsthalle Wien
production: Gebrüder Thonet Wien
exhibition: Was ist Loos?, 2017
in collection of: Kunsthalle Wien
reviews a.o: the gap-austria / domusweb-italy / e-flux / disegno daily / der standard / frame / intramuros / archpaper / wiener zeitung, designboom, dezeen
​talking about it a.o: radio Ö1 / conversation at Kunsthalle Wien / Ineke at Kunsthalle Wien