Awarded
Raphaël Von Allmen
'Plastic Back Chair' (diploma work)
Product and Industrial Design
Awarded
'Plastic Back Chair' (diploma work)
Product and Industrial Design
Comfortable tension seating
A flexible material attached to a solid base: that is the basic principle of the 'Plastic Back Chair'. The diploma work of young designer Raphaël von Allmen convinced the jury. The ECAL trained object designer submitted a straightforward concept on the development of a chair with his 'Plastic Back Chair'. As a transition from idea to concrete realisation, von Allmen, after some first sketches, first designed 3D models made of paper and cardboard on a 1:5 scale. By combining both sketch and model he improved the scale and the quality of the material bit by bit. A main difficulty in finding the form was, in particular, the adaptation of the plastic back to the solid base of the chair. The project's result is something to behold. The end product of the four-month-long search is a chair with a flexible back made of plastic, chair legs made of aluminium profiles and a seat made out of an aluminium plate. Functionality and construction are clearly visible and it becomes immediately obvious what, how and in particular why something was put together exactly like this by the designer. The concise form is created by a deliberate return to a simple way of manufacturing the back. Instead of an expensive cast, Raphaël von Allmen chose a cheaper cutting technique that allows him to keep production costs down. The constituents are easy to take apart and can be reused individually. The fitted polypropylene sheet is grooved in order to guarantee stability and riveted to the stiff aluminium construction in a such a way that gives the backs its shape. The seat is screwed onto the aluminium construction and gives ultimate tension to the plastic. In short: a chair where the material offers resistance.
Eduard Hartmann
Raphaël Von Allmen
Born in
1983
Education
Designer HES, design industriel