Time traveling through the collection: bent wood

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Richard Hutten
20
00:20

Richard Hutten

Richard G.J. Hutten is a Dutch designer, well known for his critical attitude towards status. In 1991 he graduated at the Design Academy Eindhoven, The Netherlands, together with a.o. Jurgen Bey, Hella Jongerius and Piet Hein Eek. Hutten has a studio in Rotterdam. His furniture has – in his own words - ‘no sign of design’; it is conceptual with a humoristic touch and above all: it is functional. Since 1993, Hutten is involved with the designer collective called: Droog Design
Charles and Ray Eames
145
02:25

Charles and Ray Eames

Charles Ormond Eames (1907-1978) and Ray-Bernice Alexandra Kaiser (1912-1988) were both American designers. Since their marriage in 1941, they collaborated as Charles and Ray Eames. Because of their experiments with molding techniques for plywood in their home in California, in 1942 the American government commissioned them to design plywood splints for the US army . The Eames couple’s goal was to let as many people possible profit from their work. The result of their quest to mold plywood in three directions resulted in a series of innovative furniture designs. The Eames couple was also working in the field of art, graphic design, film and architecture.
Annemartine van Kesteren
180
03:00

Annemartine van Kesteren

From 2006 until 2009, Annemartine van Kesteren was City Curator at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. Her field of research was contemporary design in the museum collection and in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She published a.o. in the catalogue of the Rotterdam Design Award 2007.
Michael Thonet
282
04:42

Michael Thonet

Michael Thonet (1796-1871) was a German cabinet maker who experimented with glued and bended wooden slats. However, Thonet didn’t succeed in patenting his technology in Germany. He and his family moved to Vienna, Austria, and there he founded an international furniture company mass-producing bentwood chairs.
Industrial thinking
380
06:20

Industrial thinking

Putting it very bluntly: ‘industrial thinking’ means that society is supposed to be a complex machine-like construction that can be supervised and directed. In this society, organisations are likewise constructed and directed. Employees are supposed to do their jobs and work in such a way that targets are made. In our information society, some critical minds argue, the industrial way of thinking and working is not tenable, since there is no strict separation anymore between consumer and producer.

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Time traveling through the collection: bent wood

Perhaps you have it at home, at your kitchen table: a molded plywood chair. It might be an ordinary model by Ikea, or an old Thonet chair that was left discarded at the sidewalk. Maybe you have a beautiful bent wooden chair from the fifties – or even This Chair, designed by Richard Hutten. Well, it doesn’t matter. Just sit down on your chair, close your eyes and – flash! Your chair is a perfect vehicle for time travelling.

In this first episode from our series Time Travelling, designer Richard Hutten and curator Annemartine van Kesteren take you to America at the time of the Second World War. There, Charles and Ray Eames produce splints as well as spectacular chairs out of molded plywood. From here you go back to 1849 Vienna, where industrial thinking begins and results in a worldwide interest in the light, dashing wooden Thonet chairs.