LAB #4(43) 2008

Verner Panton | Article is prepared by Maria Sazonova | Photo courtesy of Rina Troxler, Ver- ner Panton Design | Verner Panton was born in 1926 in a small town of Gamtofte on the Danish island of Fuen. He was an engineering student in the Odense technical school and then entered the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. While still a student in 1950 Panton was employed by Arne Yacobsen’s studio. At the time it was com- mon practice, as there were no design schools in the modern sense of the world. While still studying in the Academy of arts Verner Panton got seriously interested in furniture design. In his great compatriot’s company he was not considered the most studious intern as he was fully devoted to his own ideas only. Panton strived to

use innovation technologies and modern materials (plastic, plexiglass, fiberglass, common glass, steel, foamed rubber and synthetic fibers). Yacobsen appreciated his student non-standard approach very much. For two years they were trying to bring modernists’ dream into reality and create an er- gonomic chair for everyday use which could fit for mass production. The emergence of new industrial technologies allowed to design the Ant Chair object, but it happened way later than planned. While traveling through Europe on his Volkswa- gen, which he converted into a mobile design studio, Verner Panton could sign contracts with manufacturers. In 1955 Panton founded his own studio. This is the time he began doing first projects of his own:

Bachelor and Tivoli chairs, made from steel tubes, fabric and plastic for Fritz Hansen company. The designer decorated interiors, sought new furni- ture shapes, designs fabrics and creates lighting fixtures. In 1958 the opening of Komigen restaurant for which Panton created interiors, created a furore. Visitors were attracted not only to the space, but to the unusual Cone Chair, designed for the restaurant. The author said the idea originated on paper from a draft. By continuing the line of the chair back straight down until it the support leg on the floor, the author has got a new form of a chair. The upturned cone of the Cone Chair was too futuristic for the time. The manufacturing of the chair began due to the fact that Percy von Halling-Koch, a Danish

материал подготовила Мария Сазонова Фото предоставлено Rina Troxler, Verner Panton Design

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