Atlantica - 01.11.2000, Page 53

A T L A N T I C A 51
material – easily recycled – which plays the principal role in dictating the form of
the chair. With its special properties, the material has given the chair new possi-
bilities for expressing “something” – that is, something new in its allusion to the
form of the skeleton, a form which has been developed in many chairs and which
exists naturally in our own bodies. The chair’s long, narrow legs, contrasted with
its low back, exaggerate its role until both material and form seem to participate
in the sitter’s conversation. For the sake of interest, one could mention a much
earlier chair, BKF by Antonio Bonet Castellana, Juan Kurchan and Jorge Ferrari-
Hardoy, from 1938. This chair also offers a tiny stage, dressed in a simple steel
frame and leather sling. The body’s contact with the leather increases the tension
of the basic frame, while its form urges the sitter to make use of its unlimited pos-
sibilities, to sit down, curl up or even use it as a stage for children’s fantasies.
Despite the existence of countless versions of chairs and sofas, dining and
coffee tables on the market, their variety is often only skin deep. The overriding
importance of marketing has led to the often-heard assertion that attractive pack-
aging matters more than a fresh interpretation of a basic concept. Around 80 per
cent of the designs we see in magazines today are chairs and sofas. All the sofas
closely resemble one another and they are inevitably placed face to face with the
faithful old coffee table in between. Thus the staging is preordained, as if taken
for granted.
The four-seater sofa, Julianica (1998), designed by Javier Sanchez Merina,
breaks up this pre-arranged order. It is a mobile piece of furniture which encour-
ages many different possibilities for communication and flexibility; communica-
tion, which tries to reflect the body language of Spanish society. That is, it tries to
introduce the complexity of social relations into the domestic environment. The
SPANISH DESIGN
51
Rothko chair (1994)
by Alberto Liévore.
Manufactured by Indartu
(Guipúzcoa).
Toledo chair (1988)
by Jorge Pensi.
Manufactured by Amat-3
(Barcelona).
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