In the 1950s, when Swiss architect and furniture designer Pierre Jeanneret designed a minimalist teak-and-cane chair, he could hardly have guessed that it would go into the annals of design history. Jeanneret created the chair, along with other furniture, for government offices in Chandigarh, which was, at the time, being designed by his cousin and colleague Le Corbusier.
In time, the V-legged chairs—of which there were thousands—were abandoned by their owners as more modern pieces of furniture showed up in the city. But they weren’t forgotten by everyone. Dealers from Europe, familiar with Jeanneret’s work, showed up to rescue and restore the ‘Chandigarh Chair’ and put them in the homes of global design aficionados who loved their classic lines and functional style.
This September, the chair is back in the news as the inspiration for a creation by Japanese designer Yuta Hosokawa, who’s famous for upcycling old clothes and other materials into new, useful things.
The redone chair, created in collaboration between Hosokawa’s Readymade imprint and Futura Laboratories, is crafted from plastic bottle caps melted down with Binchotan charcoal to reduce toxic fumes. The seat and backrest retain the cane look of Jeanneret’s masterpiece. The creators say it’s a one-off offering. Still, it’s nice to see the reincarnation. Clearly, this is not an easy chair to forget
