Houdini (e15) - Making-of
Illustration: Stefan Diez
It looks different somehow, the new chair from e15. That in itself is quite a feat, for nothing seems to fascinate product designers more than this primordial piece of furniture. “Houdini” looks strangely familiar and nevertheless modern. But the combination of old and new is more than skin-deep. Even though you can’t really tell by looking at it, the core of the all-wood chair was designed and manufactured using state-of-the-art technology – and is the ingenious creation of designer Stefan Diez.
Stefan Diez has already shown he has a knack for chairs with his designs for Thonet and Wilkhahn. Then German furniture brand e15 asked the Munich designer to create a whole family of chairs. The first question he asked himself was what a chair would have to look like in order to harmonise with e15’s archetypal tables. The first few models in the same vein didn’t help. “We realised we needed something with totally different forms, something that was the exact opposite of e15’s language, otherwise the two things would just cancel each other out,” says Stefan Diez of his approach. As we talk, the rain beats a constant, monotonous rhythm on the skylight of his studio. But not even the June downpour can detract from ...
Author: Frank A. Reinhardt
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Free offprint
Topics:
- Title: A Chair with No Snags
- Introduction
- Design phase
- e15’s design philosophy
- Craftsmanship and high-tech
- Built-in copy protection