Miniatures .02

Description

Belgian designer and interior architect Maarten Van Severen was an idiosyncratic figure on the international design scene. His work was noted for its intense engagement with a few basic furniture types, such as the chair, table, chaise longue, shelving and cabinet, for which he developed fundamental solutions.

Like Jean Prouvé, Van Severen regarded his experiments in the workshop and his close physical contact with the materials to be a vital element of the design process. This was the reason why, up until the mid 90s, when he started working with industrial partners, he produced all his designs in the workshop that he had set up in 1987.

This included the CNº II chair (later .02), introduced in 1992. This chair, with its simplicity of form, has a seat and backrest crafted from a continuous piece of material – a sheet of aluminium or thin plywood – set on an aluminium base. The CNº II formed the basis for his subsequent collaboration with Vitra to develop the .03 chair, which was introduced to the market in 1998 and marked his international emergence as a designer.

Details

Made in: Germany
Scale: 130 x 94 x 63 mm
Material: Seat and back made of beech plywood, aluminium base, plastic glides

Designer

Maarten Van Severen, 1992

Maarten Van Severen studied architecture at the Art Academy in Ghent. He designed his first furniture pieces in 1986 and in the following year established an independent workshop, where he pursued the limited, semi-industrial production of his own furniture designs. This unified process of design and production was long a fundamental aspect of his work, which was devoted to the examination of basic furniture types: chair, table, chaise longue, shelving, cabinet. Van Severen developed primary solutions for these categories based on a comprehensive investigation of the questions of form, material and construction.

Brand

Vitra is much more than a brand but rather a staple of design. Established in 1950 in Birsfelden, Switzerland, the brand has left its mark on design history through its transcending path. Starting as a furniture producer, it paved its way to manufacturing and ultimately became the powerhouse design institution we see today.