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"comfort" Tag


Sitting in Red and Blue or Zigzag ?


Sunday, March 29, 2015

First time I encountered him, it was at theory class;

The second time I encountered him, was at a museum exhibition;

The last time I encounter him, was at a teacher house.

 

MoMa_RedBlue23

original Rietveld Red and Blue chair 1923 from MoMa collection • chair at seen at exhibition

 

Bright color surface, complex structuration. I was deeply attracted to him, the Red and Blue Chair, one of the most famous chair made by Gerrit Rietveld.

 

Red and Blue Chair is an important example of the three-dimensional works of De Stijl. One typically relates the chair to De Stijl, or concept of design in general, rather than to utility. The unstable outward appearance and the height of the chair raise questions about its comfort.

 

One can imagine the importance of comfort in the design of a chair. There are well-established criteria for the ergonomic evaluation of chairs to prevent user discomfort and injury. The main ergonomic considerations for chairs in the workplace are the following: comfort, safety, adaptability, practicality, durability, and suitability for the job. Luckily, I had a chance to sit in an original (1958 Groenekan) Red and Blue Chair at my teacher’s studio. Before I conclude the chair is actually comfortable, I would like to summarize a few points from my experience sitting in it.

1
at teachers home 

First of all, as an armchair, the sitting angle is relaxed. The chair has armrests at the appropriate height and of the suitable length. The most essential part of chair was the back. The back is long which gives support to the lumbar region and the shoulders. For people who aren’t too tall, they could relax their head against the back of the chair. What’s more? Since the production of materials is wood, cut boxy neither polished round. So sturdy texture reduces the comfort of the chair.  However, it creates a better sitting situation, combining the chair with cushion. The chair with its logical construction could easily be made much comfortable with the help of some cushions.

 

The most fundamental question is adaptability: the chair’s dimensions and control features cannot meet the ergonomic characteristics of at least 60% of the potential users, due to the low seat. In fact, present standards would not define it as a suitably ergonomic chair. However, it wasn’t Rietveld’s original intention to design a chair for people to sit on for hours on end. His famous words are sitting (in Dutch “zitten”) is a verb (verb in Dutch translates into “werkwoord” a combination of the words “werk”= work and “woord” = word), meaning ; “sitting is an active pastime“.
Compared to today’s concern about ergonomics, the culture of sitting has experienced a great change from the past, according to the Australian engineer and designer Albert Linschutz in 1928.

 

Chair comfort level and the user’s body position are inextricably linked. This network survey shows that most is known as a comfortable chair, the way the vast majority of the user’s apply are lying down, compared to sitting, lying down, of course is more comfortable.

 

chair-Ergonomics_1100


A Short Interview with André Klein.Foto-André1

 

Question:
What do you think of red & blue chair by Rietveld?
André:
" Hmmmm, it was never my favorites.
It seems uncomfortable but I must admitted when you sit, its not so bad. But after 20 minutes for me its maximum.
And I like Zig-Zag chair much more as a design."

 

The Zig-Zag Chair is another chair designed by Gerrit Rietveld from 1934. It is a minimalistic design without legs, made by four flat wooden tiles that are merged in a Z-shape using joints.
cassina-zig-zag-2822-5525_z1Rietveld_ZigZag

Zig-Zag chair by Cassiba • original copy 1934 from the MoMa collection

Besides the superior Z-shaped appearance, the flat seat and vertical backrest are joined by a system of dovetail joints. Coupled with the unique shape, the straight back of chair is perfectly matched with user’s back, which creates a better comfort situation. Sufficient height of the chair seat becomes much more practical and ergonomic for the user. One does not need to exert much energy or rely on an armrest to be able to stand easily, which is a feature the Red and Blue Chair cannot achieve due to its low seat.  What’s more? Since school still keeping the original zigzag chairs made by Rietveld, I also got chance to sit on it. For my own perspective, the specific design angle could correct user’s sitting position and it becomes much pleasant sitting experience due to the ergonomic principle.

zigzag

at school's student office

 

Zig-Zag Chair as a designer chair was one of Rietveld’s most economic designs. Cassina S.p.A, an Italian manufacturing company, is still producing the replicas of the Zig-Zag Chair up until this day.

The chair is in fact quite sturdy, yet comfortable. With or without the addition of cushions, the chairs have proved be very efficient and have served their owner over many years.

 

By comparing the two different styles of chairs made by Rietveld, the importance of user comfort within design is put into question. As design students, we must understand the concept of design within many parameters. For instance, when we design a chair, considering appearance and functionality, at the same time, we cannot avoid considering comfort. We take user’s sitting preference, or changing the material or shape as factors or direction to achieve the demanding of comfort. A good design will often require meeting several standards. I believe that this concept is applicable to all design.

 

Design is to change the life, so that people can enjoy and sustain life more.

 

‘The Mosquito’


Friday, March 27, 2015

I am sitting behind a table, in my parents house, on a familiar, comfortable chair. I am used to this seat and it has been around for as long as I can remember. My grandmother got a set of four teak wooden chairs with a matching table as a wedding gift in the late fifties.  I have seen them in two different states throughout my life. My mother was given the set when she was about twenty years old. Feeling that the natural teak wood colour was outdated and ugly she decided to paint the chairs red. The table was not present until recently.

About a year ago my mom started to regret her decision to paint the chairs, and had them brought back to their original state. After my parents moved to a new house the chairs and table were placed in their newly furnished home, where they stand in full glory. Ever since then I keep admiring them more

 

family-around-Jacobsen_900

two generations sitting at the dinner table

 

The Danish designer/architect Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971) introduced the munkegaard chair – also known as the mosquito – in 1955, in the Munkegaard school located in Gentofte, north of Copenhagen. The school is considered one of his most important architectural works, within which he designed everything from the light fixtures to the sinks [x]. The chair that belonged to it became an absolute classic. Because of the setting that the chairs were made for, the design is highly functional. They are very easy to stack, which is perfect in places where you have to deal with limited space. They are extremely durable and comfortable at the same time. The part on which your back rests follows the natural shape of your spine. The seat of the chair is made out of pressure moulded sliced veneer. The bases are made of chrome steel tubes. The thin wood is strong but flexible. If you lean backwards, the wood moves slightly with you. The chairs are more than just convenient though. The elegant objects have an inviting look. They are unique in their simplicity with an understated aesthetic quality, which makes them so brilliant. They will complement any decor or surrounding, and bring an edge to any interior. Having only been produced from 1955 until the late sixties (and for a short amount of time in the nineties), they are now back in production again. When you pay attention they appear everywhere. When I was on a holiday in Denmark, I noticed that the chair was used in many different places, from office spaces, to cafeterias, and from the fancy to the less fancy places. Everyone seems to appreciate them. See here a website made especially for the chair.

 

Munkegaard schoolThe mosquito chair

Munkegaard School                             The Mosquito Chair, Teakwood

 

Jacobsen plays an enormous part in the image we have of danish design, and maybe even design in general. Traces of his work are found worldwide, even now still, thirty years after his death. Jacobsen was a man of extraordinary vision, strong ideals and in his time was considered true avant-garde. He is not considered intellectual or analytical in a traditional sense. Jacobsen was a producer; even when he was not working he worked nonetheless. Relaxation for him meant a shift in the creative realm. His output therefore was enormous. As a designer he strongly believed in the ‘form follows function’ motto. Jacobsen was inspired by the works of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius, which is explicitly visible in his own early works. He was also inspired by the furniture of Ray and Charles Eames who worked a lot with bent plywood. Even though Jacobsen is most famous as a designer he never called himself as such, and it is said he had a strong dislike towards the word. A lot of his designs were created in the context of the architectural buildings that they would be placed in.

I see Jacobsen as a visionary, as he played a huge part in designing the environment we live our daily lives in. From architectural masterpieces to simple things we use everyday, Jacobsen surrounds us. He makes things exactly the way I like them. His designs are the perfect formula of functionality, durability, and aesthetics. They are modern simplicity: all that it needs to be and nothing more. His mosquito chair will remain a timeless object that people will appreciate for ever. As for the chairs in my parents house, they are probably not originals, since the design is one of the most copied in the world. Nonetheless I am happy that I have grown up acquainted with such a beautiful piece of design.


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