chairs – FTN-blog

Posted on 12.08.202129.05.2021 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Delft Chair Collection ….STOELEN

stoelen delft a

Containing over 300 chairs collected for teaching purposes since 1957, the collection is currently under the supervision of the Chair History of Architecture and Urban Planning (Van Wijk). It is acknowledged as one of the most important furniture collections in the Netherlands and is a source of knowledge about materials, construction and typologies for students and designers alike. In the past, the chairs were used as examples during lectures and as models during drawing lesson, but we now also use them as point of departure for research and design courses. Preliminary evaluations show that the close engagement with these unique objects improves students’ design processes and products.

Therre is an excellent article on thsi important collection to be found here:

JoDH_artikel_def.pdf (stoelencollectiedelft.nl)

and of course www.ftn-books.com has the first impostant publication from 1980 on this collection available.

stoelen delft b

Posted on 23.03.201914.02.2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

L wig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)qΩ“Ω~ |’| §

Schermafbeelding 2019-02-14 om 15.19.14

When i think about Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, three of his designs i remember instantly. The first …a chair by Mies van der Rohe, One i always wanted to own and when i finally had one i did not think it was comfortable enough so i sold it. The chair… a Barcelona chair.

Schermafbeelding 2019-02-14 om 15.16.32

The one he designed for the Barcelona Pavillion. It was designed for the World exhibition from 1929 and after the exhibition it was demolished, but a group of spanish architects recognized its importance and had it rebuild in the Eighties from last century. I finally had a chance to see it for myself when i visited Barcelona for the first time around 2005. We walked over there since it is only a 10 minutes walk from the Fundacio Joan Miro.

The last one is the Seagram building which is one of the skyscrapers i admired when i first visited New York together with my father. A building i remembered well and of which i recognized style elements when i visited the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin some 30 years later. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is a force in design and has made his mark on many of last centuries greatest designs. Some of his classic publications are availabel at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 20.07.201816.05.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Furniture catalogues…. impressive and highly collectable

furniture cat a

Many of you have sometime in their lives took home a furniture catalogue. No, not the one from IKEA or Habitat, but one from one of the more prestigious designers like Vitra, Herman Miller, Alessi, Foscarelli or Cassina. These are the ones that matter and because they have almost unlimited funds for promotion at their sisposal their catalogues belong to the very best. The best photographers, designers and printers are selected and with them they make beautiful timeless books/catalogues/editions for their products. Even better….because they are just promotional material many of these are lost or replaced making them scarce and highly collectable items. To start a collection ….just visit your local furnituer mall, selct the best store with the most prestigious furniture name and ask them for some product catalogues so you can do your choosing at home. My guess is you will leave the store with a bundle of catalogues and have started your own collection. Beside these free publications some of these companies have their own line of publications. One of them is Cassina who have produced several prestigious books on their products and designers over the decades. www.ftn-books.com has the ones on Le Corbusier and Mackintosh now for sale.

Posted on 28.01.201712.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971)

Arne Jacobsen

Ant chair

Danish design…Hot in the sixties and now timeless in 21th century. If you look at Danish design over the last 70 years you conclude one thing and that is these Danisg designers are masters with plywood. This technology of molding wood is also used by Ray and Charles Eames, but for me Arne Jacobsen is the greatest. He made so many beautiful and classic designs, one could wish one had a bigger house to show all this beautiful furniture.

But beside furniture Jacobsen had another discipline in which he excelled….architecture

also simple and beautiful and because these architectural designs are not extravagant they are truly timeless like his furniture is. In the 50’s this true artist met Willem Sandberg and resulted in an excellent exhibition which was organized by the Stedelijk Museum in 1959. Accompanied by a typical and one of the best Sandberg designed catalogues from the Fifties. books available at www.ftn-books.com