J-emine's reflexionando

This showcase was part of a wider exhibit of ‘Sitting, The Library of Chairs’, which aim to showcase the evolution of this furniture from the 50’s, 60s and today – from monobloc plastic chairs, inflatable seats and the ingestion of colours and forms.

Post- war building projects saw many designers and manufacturers invited to design or furnish these projects, one of them being the Cité Universitaire in Antony which aim was to replicate an American campus. This Universitaire project was innovatively known for it size and social vocation. Jean Prouvé, who has already provided furnitures for different faculties prior was called upon to provide furnishings for the cafeteria and the many bedrooms, using ingenious equipments, simple layouts of symmetrical arrangements in two. Part of this furnishing he brought upon previous furnishing such as the Compas desk and developed a new model of chairs from moulded plywood – the Antonty Chair.

Jean Prouvé was a Nancy- based architect, engineer, builder and designer – his functional and humanistic approach made his elegant creations accessible to everyone, with a applaudable combination of art and industry. His apprenticeship as a blacksmith, elevated his knowledge and limitations with metal; experiencing and procuring different material replacements such as aluminium, steel etc for furniture components. The Compas desk, for example was a slender desk with elegantly splayed metal legs, with engineering principles that embodied the structured approach of the designer. The Antony chair, as mentioned above was developed for Cité Universitaire in Antony, is one of his most famous design, which not only embodied his structure approach but also his – design principles – of bridging cold metal frame and warm wooden seat. I couldn’t find further information, but I believe similar to his other chairs, Antony chair was built with the ‘form of equal resistance’, of which the legs are designed not to break when a sitter swings back and forth.