Our chairs are inspired on the Chandigarh or Capitol Complex collection, designed by the Chandigarh Collective. A collective of designers, architects, and craftspeople under leadership of Pierre Jeanneret. In the early 1950s, this collective was tasked to design furniture for the new city of Chandigarh, India. How these chairs came to life is a fascinating story and if you're interested in purchasing a chair, it is well worth knowing a thing or two about it.
After India got independent from England, the new Indian government was looking to make a statement to show they were to become a modern democracy.
So in the 1950’s they commissioned renowned architect Le Corbusier to create a masterplan for a new modernistic city that would become the new capital of the Punjab state. This city was named Chandigarh.
Le Corbusier took the job to design the city's masterplan and asked his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, a trained architect and designer, to assist him. The masterplan included residential sites, office sites, government buildings (the Capitol Complex), industrial sites and so on. And since it was a new city - and there were no furniture shops - A Design Office consisting of young indian designers, architects and model makers was set up under leadership of Pierre Jeanneret. This Design Office was tasked with designing a distinctive line of furniture for this new city. The Chandigarh Collection was born.
Pierre Jeanneret created his vision for the furniture line by combining modernistic western 1950's design with locally available materials and production techniques. (See the resemblance to the iconic 1950's Rietveld chair?)
Teak proved to be perfect for furniture manufacturing as it has some characteristics unlike any other type of wood. It is extremely durable, resistant to heat, moist & bugs and it is hardly affected by changes in humidity. The hand woven rattan seating provided the required comfort.
The drawings created by the Chandigarh Collective were intentionally designed to be developed and adapted by local carpentry workshops. This gave craftspeople the freedom to improvise with materials and details, tailoring each piece to their specific needs.
As a result, a wide variety of models was produced, no two exactly alike. The Chandigarh designs were always meant to be freely made and used by the people of the city. They were never licensed to a single manufacturer, nor trademarked by a company or individual.
Many now see it as one of the first large-scale open-source design projects in history.
