TECHNO COLOURS

NEW TECHNOLOGY opened up a whole palette of possibilities for Muller Van Severen’s functional, FUTURISTIC Alu chairs.

New technology has opened up a palette of possibilities for Muller Van Severen’s functional, futuristic Alu chairs

If such fuss is made of Pantone’s one annual colour prediction (Living Coral for 2019, in case you hadn’t heard), imagine the deliberating when two colour-loving designers have to choose from infinite combinations of shades for their latest chair.

The duo behind Muller Van Severen had become accustomed to (after first being frustrated with) limited colour options for a series of products — including their ‘First chair’ (2012) — in polyethylene and lacquered steel. After all, this is the material used for those cutting boards in professional kitchens: green for vegetables, red for meat, blue for fish, yellow for chicken and so on. The thenbudding Belgian studio was quickly associated with quirky, clever colour, because once you combine these basic hues, they take on a new personality. Swap out polyethylene for powder-coated aluminium a few years later and suddenly there are no limits. What’s more, the Alu chair, just like the First chair, encourages a contrasting seat and back, which confuses things even further. The pair finally settled on 16 colour combinations. “Choosing the colours was hard for this chair,” says Fien Muller. “You can actually create a landscape of colours,” Hannes Van Severen adds. “[They] really determine the atmosphere of the space: you can create a very playful or a rather serious environment.” Originally designed as an outdoor chair for Anne Holtrop’s Bahrain Pavilion for the World Expo 2015 in Milan, the Alu chair is not only lightweight but surprisingly hard-wearing due to its treatment of beeswax and a UV protective lacquer. Distributed by Valerie Objects, the chair is now available in Australia at Spence &

Lyda.