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The Furniture of Frank Gehry September 22, 2004–November 15, 2004
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Wall Text The Furniture of Frank Gehry - Wall Text Both imaginative and spirited, Frank Gehry’s furniture designs reflect the collective design community’s most prized ideals. For more than 30 years Frank Gehry has proposed designs using materials ranging from cardboard to aluminum to polymer that seem to challenge gravity and defy structure. Gehry’s rigorous study of his furniture prototypes has resulted in a continuous refinement of his designs. In applying his highly personal, relentless and intuitive logic to furniture design, Gehry marries engineering and materials to produce inventive forms. As one of the most celebrated and well-known architects of our time and in collaboration with such recognized furniture manufacturers as Emeco, Heller, Knoll, Inc. and Vitra, Frank Gehry has produced furniture designs that continue to challenge the boundaries of the craft.
Panel 1 Frank Gehry designed a series of innovative bentwood chairs produced by Knoll, Inc. in the 1990’s that included the High Sticking side chair, Power Play armchair, Hat Trick side chair and the Cross Check armchair. This lightweight series made of 1/32 inch laminated plywood strips was both practical and economical. Knoll, Inc. has a storied history of collaboration with prominent architects and designers and is known for its commitment to exploration in design. The most recent Gehry design produced by Knoll, Inc. is the FOG chair. This lightweight chair, suitable for indoor and outdoor use, is composed of a cast aluminum shell sitting on tubular stainless steel legs. The FOG chair references Gehry’s architectural structures with its seat formed of a creased metal plane. Panel 2 The Frank Gehry Furniture Collection was created by Frank Gehry for Heller and includes three cubes, a bench, an easy chair, a coffee table/sitting unit and a sofa produced in silver polymer. Designed for use both indoors and outdoors, this furniture series is composed of sculptural forms with sleek surfaces and flowing lines and mimics the recognizable forms of Gehry’s architecture. Panel 3 In 1984 Frank Gehry began designing furniture produced by Vitra, the German furniture manufacturing company for whom he later designed the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein Germany. Gehry’s first effort for Vitra was the groud-breaking Easy Edges series of lamenated cardboard furniture that included whimsical Stacking Tables and the iconic Wiggle Chair. The Grandpa Chair was conceived as part of a later cardboard series, Experimental Edges, whose irregular rough edges contrasted with the finished, more polished lines of the Easy Edges series. Vitra includes Frank Gehry’s furniture designs among its widely sold collection of chair miniatures, placing the architect firmly in the highest ranks of furniture designers of the 20th century. Panel 4 In April of 2004, Emeco announced the introduction of the SuperLight, a new
chair designed by Frank Gehry. The SuperLight stacking chair was designed for
use indoors or out and is made of anodized aluminum. Emeco, producer of aluminum
chairs developed for the U.S. Navy in the 1940’s, uses recycled materials
extensively and is known for hand-craftsmanship and a commitment to engineering
expertise. With the SuperLight chair Frank Gehry achieved his goal of combining
engineering and design to produce a chair that is comfortable and practical,
lightweight and strong.
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