Emeco, The Aluminum Chair Company, announces a collaboration with Frank O. Gehry, the world's foremost living architect. The project, a comfortable, lightweight and affordable aluminum chair called SuperLight will be introduced at Milan's 2004 Salone Internazionale del Mobile, April 14 - 19. Also debuted, a new film by Eames Demetrios about the design process of SuperLight, entitled “Ping Pong”. The new chair will retail for around US$ 350 and is available in 27 countries worldwide.
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Hanover, PA (PRWEB) April 8, 2004 -- Emeco, The Aluminum Chair Company, announces a collaboration with Frank O. Gehry, the world’s foremost living architect. The project, a comfortable, lightweight and affordable aluminum chair called SuperLight will be introduced at Milan’s 2004 Salone Internazionale del Mobile, April 14 - 19. Also debuted, a new film by Eames Demetrios about the design process of SuperLight, entitled “Ping Pongâ€.
SuperLight and the film “Ping Pong†can be previewed at an exclusive press event, 11:00 AM, and 4:00 PM (16 PM) on Tuesday, April 13 at la Triennale - Viale Alemagna 6 - 20121 Milano. Gregg Buchbinder, Emeco’s Chairman and Owner, and Eames Demetrios, the filmmaker, will be available for questions and discussion. Emeco's stand at the Salone is located at Hall 20/1 - Stand C01.
“I wanted three things in this chair: comfort, light weight and strength,†explains Mr. Gehry. “Aluminum was the obvious choice and Emeco was the only company that could make it. It’s been a fun project, and amazingly quick – just 11 months from the first meeting with Gregg to the Milan introduction.†Mr. Gehry continues, “Gio Ponti’s Superleggera chair was the inspiration – and I’ve always wanted to design a super lightweight chair. I tried to extract the essence – structure and skin, where engineering and design are one thing. SuperLight is a chair that moves to accommodate all body types. The sitter activates the chair. And we got it down to 6 ½ pounds, and that makes it easier for a lot more people to use and move around.â€
SUPERLIGHT illustrates Mr. Gehry’s fascination with aluminum structure and skin. It will be made side-by-side in Pennsylvania, USA, with Emeco’s classic 1006 Navy chair, developed for submarines in WWII. SuperLight utilizes much of the same 77-Step Process in conjunction with new technologies and techniques.
“Emeco spent 60 years perfecting strong, rigid chairs,†said Mr. Buchbinder. “Frank asked us to keep the strength, but add flex and movement. It was a challenge that our production experts ate up. Our proprietary heat treatment creates a structure that is 3 times the strength of steel. We found an old machine on site that turns the aluminum like hemming fabric, and at the same time creates a structural tube along the edge of the chair’s shell. This enabled us to perfect the single sheet skin.†Mr Buchbinder continues, "This is an honest example of a dialogue between a manufacturer with a unique production method, and a designer with a unique vision. Our relationship is based on respect and freedom, enjoyment and intensity.â€
SuperLight is available with an industrial felt pad or brushed/ anodized aluminum. The chair stacks in a unique way by un-clipping the skin from the structure. The all-aluminum version can be used indoors or out. Retail prices will start at US$ 350, affordable when compared to Gehry’s chairs for other companies.
Born in Canada in 1929, Mr. Gehry has become a naturalized U.S. citizen. In 1954, he graduated from USC and after a year in the army, he was admitted to Harvard Graduate School of Design to study urban planning. He returned to Los Angeles and stayed until 1960. In 1961, Mr. Gehry moved to Paris where he worked and studied works by LeCorbusier, Balthasar Neumann, and was attracted by the French Roman churches. In 1962, he returned to Los Angeles, setting up his own firm. Mr. Gehry won Architecture’s prestigious 1989 Pritzker Prize. He is the architect of some of the most important buildings in the past half-century, including Guggenheim Bilbao and Disney Hall Los Angeles.
Emeco was founded in 1944 to make all-aluminum chairs for the US Navy. In 1998, Mr. Buchbinder purchased the company and began a friendship and association with the renowned French architect, Philippe Starck, creating a series of products that united Emeco’s historic manufacturing capabilities with Mr. Starck’s classic designs for a new century. In 2000, Mr. Starck’s Hudson chair for Emeco won the Good Design Award and was inducted into the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Mr. Demetrios is a filmmaker and passionate advocate for the importance of design and design authenticity. In addition to creating interactive fiction and working as a creative asset consultant, Demetrios is the director of the Eames House Foundation, committed to taking care of the architectural and historic landmark home built by his grandparents, designers Charles and Ray Eames. Mr. Demetrios last worked with Emeco on the film “77 Steps†a 3-minute, focused view of Emeco’s proprietary manufacturing process.
Emeco has made over 1,000,000 Navy chairs since 1944, and now sells its all-aluminum furniture in 27 countries. Please visit www.emeco.net
Contact Information:
Daniel Fogelson, VP Sales and Marketing
Emeco
Phone 1 401 935 7088
6 Comments
That is the ugliest chair and cheapest looking that I have ever see. It sucks really bad. i don't think that i have words to identify how much I hate that chair. we go to design school for so long for that, that's what represents modern architecture? come on Mr. ghery, spend at least thirty minutes doing sketches and then give it to your army of designers, one of them must come up with something half decent, anything more decnet than that piece of crap.
Yeah, like the Hockey World Cup
of all things, it's hard to judge a chair without sitting in it.
Doing furniture design one of the biggest challenges is not just making a structurally safe chair but also making it look structurally safe. Sadly this chairs looks like it is going to splay!!
It kind of looks like you'll slip right off, but the last Gehry chair that came out(see it) was very comfortable.
I have to admit I love the FOG chair that Javier is talking about.
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