The Nest collection is as unrestrained as most work from Form Us With Love, presenting a reversed silhouette — a club chair with skinny legs. Our ideas of different height layers led, as they often do, into deeper research.
Fascinated by the typologies of pedestals, such as the Umpire’s chair on a tennis court, the studio experimented with a lofty landscape, adding the element of dignity and softness — to a seat with a view.
Form Us With Love:
We analysed the activities and behaviours of a public spaces, and the upholstered furniture vs. bar stool seating scenario. Then we researched the market, and investigated the future of the environment in which the products will ‘live’. Instead of putting the two characteristics next to one another, we merged them — creating a tall vertical Nest.
The factory that produces most of +Halle’s pieces is great for a designer to experience first hand — its skilled craftsmen really understanding the importance of the small details. In the workshop they work with forms, construction, mouldings and sewn elements. After a heavy ideation phase in the studio, we finally decided that the notion of ‘high seating’ was something to explore and invest time in. It would be a collaborative project that truly demonstrates the skills used in +Halle’s factory.
We went from big to small and big again. We held onto this idea of a high sofa and armchair collection. We sketched endlessly and forced through iterations, to move fast into CAD models and physical mock-ups. The idea was for the design and shape be capable of creating an impact yet be comfortable and inviting. A rounded seat typically brings character. Using a straight line in this case changes everything for the worse; too hard as a silhouette.
As a whole, we wanted to highlight the exceptional capacity for craft +Halle holds and nurtures. This craft-thinking seems to hold a special place in Denmark’s design history,a rich understanding of precision and detailing. This you see in the fluid intersection of the seat and the backrest. The viewer experiences the chair as a whole rather than a series of connected pieces.
Design shouldn’t be put on a pedestal necessarily, but the idea of celebrating real craft is worth lifting. In this case, lifting a little higher from the ground than usual.The challenge with the Nest range for +Halle was the balance between the seat and legs. The importance was adding steadiness, to an exceptionally elegant, high piece of furniture.
There was a deal of prototype ping pong to begin with. CAD files to and from +Halle as the concept developed. And the nature of the ‘high furniture’ was something that placed a lot of stress on the different components. If you have a longer structure that you want to keep ‘clean’ aesthetically then the stresses on joints and spot welds increase.
Together with +Halle, we invested a lot of time in developing the right steel structure that would hold its lines but not take over visually. A narrow gauge pipe loses its torsional strength. The fluid intersection of the seat and the backrest in the Nest collection is about quality and durability, demonstrating the skills on offer in +Halle’s factory. A simple, rational metal construction with bend tubes is the optimal way to create a simple but durable leg construction but keep some spring. A ladder to the clouds above.
