While he might be better known as one of the founding architects of Kohn Pedersen Fox – a firm behind some of the world’s biggest skyscrapers, William Pedersen has recently been turning his attention towards furniture design. After stumbling upon a rusted steel rod in a field, he began experimenting with bending wire loops and eventually chanced upon a shape that resembled the frame of a potential chair.
The Loop de Loop chair is comprised of this unique looping shape along with a knitted polyester mesh which braces the seat and backrest portions. It looks immensely comfortable and he’s so far designed chaise longue, side chair, dining chair and lounge chair iterations – and is currently working on a rocking chair version.
Just doing a chair was not my objective. It had to represent something fundamentally conceptual. In a way I was looking for almost a Platonic idealization of “chairness”.
– William Pedersen
William Pedersen recently spoke to the New York Times in an interview entitled ‘Because Buildings Need Seats‘ in which Pedersen shares his thought process behind his new Loop de Loop chair. In the interview he divulges details on his past furniture design exploits, and explains how these pieces were about the architecture (and perhaps not all that comfortable).
“This time I wanted to design a chair that was really a chair. I wanted to do something very small, very well. It took me five years.”
– William Pedersen, NY Times
Pedersen sees the Loop de Loop as the next stage in a quest for the perfect chair, as was set out on in the 20th century by the likes of Mart Stam, Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. These single-line chairs are now recognised as design classics for their simplicity, but William Pedersen considers his Loop de Loop chair to be an even purer design. It has no secondary elements such as a back or armrests attached to its looped structure, and requires no lateral bracing as the fabric provides tension putting the frame in compression.
Photography by Jock Pottle
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