Konstantin Grcic | imm cologne

The PRO chair series from Flötotto: designed for schools, suitable for anywhere

The PRO chair series from Flötotto. (photo: Flötotto)

Eight months after its launch at the imm cologne 2012, the Flötotto chair series PRO is being extended to include a four-prong aluminium pedestal base and a bistro table. Flötotto is presenting the additions to the chair collection designed by Konstantin Grcic at Orgatec.

To this day, the Flötotto brand’s fame is closely linked with school chairs. “There’s something about Flötotto that you could call its DNA, based on the special shape of the seat shell and the resulting functionality. We wanted to reconnect with our history, but in an innovative way,” says managing director Frederik Flötotto who, together with his father and co-managing director Elmar Flötotto, began producing school furniture again in 2012 whilst simultaneously positioning PRO on the market for contract and domestic furniture. In the course of the intensive joint development process with Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design, which took a good two years to complete, the original idea of “just” producing a school chair was expanded. read more…

23. October 2012
Categories: News
Tags: bistro table, chair, Elmar Flötotto, Flötotto, Frederik Flötotto, imm cologne 2012, Konstantin Grcic, Orgatec, school furniture

Johanna Grawunder interview: “Experimental design and Art Design are the drivers for the entire industry”

The Trendboard has been talking about the end of design icons. What does that mean for interior design?
Yes, that’s something we discussed, but I don’t think it’s as absolute as that. In my opinion, there will always be iconic design. Because whether or not an object has cult character depends on the design itself and not on whether it’s marketed using that particular label. Many things are designed without a single thought being given to their symbolism, but they manage to capture consumers’ imagination at a certain moment in time all the same, so they come to represent a certain zeitgeist. What has really changed is people’s need to fill their homes with designer items as if they were toy chests. That attitude has gone slightly out of fashion.

Konstantin Grcic: ”I even think certain rules have to be laid down. That’s the only way things are going to change.”

Konstantin Grcic (*1965) trained as a cabinetmaker at the John Makepeace School for Craftsmen in Dorset (1985 to 1987) before studying furniture design at the Royal College of Art in London.

After a year as an assistant to Jasper Morrison, he founded his own firm in Munich in 1991: “Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design”. The 90s saw the start of his success with laundry baskets and other plastic items for Authentics; then came style icons such as the Mayday lamp for Flos (1999), the swaying shelving unit Es for Nils Holger Moormann (1999), the Chaos armchair for ClassiCon (2001) and the Osorom seating element for Moroso (2002). The chair_ONE die-cast aluminium chair with a conical concrete foot (Magis, 2004) was actually intended for public spaces but went on to sell in its thousands as a sculptural lattice structure with seating function for the private loft. It was followed by the Miura bar stool (Plank, 2005).

Pure Village: new exhibition format for premium design showcases

pure_village There’s more to a living room than a sofa by Marcel Wanders, a chair by Konstantin Grcic or a shelf by Arik Lévy. It is the nuances, the scenography of the room and the context of the lighting, furniture and fabrics that provide the backdrop for showing the leading actors off at their best – one reason, perhaps, why design items are increasingly providing the face for complete creative concepts.

The new presentation format Pure Village caters to this market development by creating a stage on which stand-alone presentations of exclusive design items are showcased just as effectively as creative interior concepts. From 19 to 24 January 2010, Hall 3.2 will cluster the highlights from the various specialist ranges in the immediate vicinity of the furniture in the Pure segment (Hall 11) and the ideas of the d3 Design Talents forum (Hall 3.1).

Oliver Holy on this year’s furniture trends: “Quiet quality instead of loud luxury.”

oliver_holy1 What are the key trends influencing furniture design this year? We asked designers, manufacturers, retailers and journalists for their assessments and observations.

Oliver Holy, CEO ClassiCon, München:
At the fair I regularly came across the new term “Homing”. Even if I’m reluctant to label any change in public desires right away I do understand what this one tries to register. I, too, believe that the uncertainty caused by the current economic and ecologic developments evokes a desire for concentrating on basics. With regard to interiors and materials this means to me that furniture which is natural, “grounded” and can even develop patina is favored and that loud and flashy styles become replaced by haptically pleasant forms and materials. I see this confirmed by the enthusiasm with which Sergio Rodrigues collection has been received.

imm cologne

Create. Furnish. Live.

The PRO chair series from Flötotto: designed for schools, suitable for anywhere

Johanna Grawunder interview: “Experimental design and Art Design are the drivers for the entire industry”

Konstantin Grcic: ”I even think certain rules have to be laid down. That’s the only way things are going to change.”

Pure Village: new exhibition format for premium design showcases

Oliver Holy on this year’s furniture trends: “Quiet quality instead of loud luxury.”

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