Movie: Designer Konstantin Grcic tells Dezeen that American furniture company Emeco had to industrialise its production methods to produce his new Parrish chair in this video interview filmed in Milan.Â
Grcic originally designed the Parrish chair as part of a range of furniture for Herzog & de Meuron's barn-like Parrish Art Museum on Long Island, completed in 2012.
The chair was launched by American furniture company Emeco as a commercial product at Milan earlier this year.
In the movie, Grcic explains that he approached Emeco to produce the chair because of its experience of working in aluminium, most famously with the iconic Navy Chair, which Emeco has produced since 1944.
"I felt we needed a company to support the development of the project," says Grcic.
"Emeco stands for chairs in aluminium and aluminium was the perfect material for the chair that we had in mind because the [Parrish Art Museum] is very open [to the elements]."
Unlike the Navy Chair, in which each piece is welded together by hand, the legs, armrests and backrest of the Parrish chair are all locked together by a single joint under the seat.
"Everything is mechanically joined to a central core, a piece of die-cast aluminium, which is really the heart of the chair," Grcic explains.
"So we have one moulded piece that solves all of the structure of the chair and the seat is exchangeable. You can have an upholstered seat, a plastic seat or a wooden seat."
Grcic says that he deliberately wanted to move Emeco away from the time-intensive production methods involved in producing the Navy Chair.
"I felt we should actually change the way [Emeco] makes chairs," he says. "Industrialise it, simplify it, eliminate all the dirty work, all the hand labour. That's what really informed the concept of the chair."
He concludes: "Emeco will always produce the Navy Chair in the way they produce it, but I think now we've established another form of production inside their company."
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