15. These outdoor furniture designs by Haldane are sleek yet sensual

Haldane Martin’s new outdoor furniture pieces have been several years in the making – and the wait was worth it. Cool and curvaceous, these sophisticated designs offer a luxe yet practical take on alfresco style.

Celebrated with a beautiful shoot that instantly caught the VISI team’s collective eye, Haldane Martin’s fresh take on outdoor furniture is, he says, “a new direction”. “This shoot is a culmination of about two or three years of work – and the realisation of my purpose,” he says. We asked him to tell us more about the new designs.

Why outdoor furniture?

Designing outdoor furniture feels like the final bolt’s gone in, bringing everything together. HALDANE is now a culmination of my personal life, interests and design work.

The lines and shapes of these pieces have a relaxed, never-hard-edged feel. Was designing in this way a conscious choice?

Every collection demands its own aesthetic. But, as a brand, we definitely use curvature to accentuate the friendliness of the furniture. We want families and friends to relax and enjoy life on these pieces. They can’t just be interesting or obscure – they also have to be beautiful and inviting, part of the home.

Tell us more about your new Slingshot chairs – the fresh and elegant take on classic campaign chairs. The Slingshot collection includes dining chairs, lounge chairs and bar stools with an authentic “bush” appeal.

The idea was to express the safari typology in a way that’s not a caricature of life in South Africa. The chairs display simplicity and tactility – and they’re comfortable too, with padded sling-style seats upholstered in a range of partly recycled fabric. The arm- and footrests are made with African iroko, embedded in the stainless-steel frames. We’re also big fans of your superbly glamorous new pool lounger. What was the thinking behind its design? There’s no getting around it – the Swartberg lounger [pictured opposite] is pure luxury, and possibly the most comfortable lounger on the planet. Generously proportioned frames are made from rich iroko wood, with adjustable back rails, in more than 20 colours, and the thick mattresses are upholstered in leading outdoor performance fabrics. It’s one of my favourite pieces.

Your collections always have intriguing – and relevant – names. How do you come up with them?

We tend to name each collection in line with its main characteristics. Each range has its own language that develops, expressing the unique personality formed by its materiality, curvature and angles, colour palette, and so on. Compare our two pool loungers, for example: Papa Sun is playful, vibrant and geometric, while Swartberg is more stately, serious, refined. They perform the same function, yet each evokes a totally different mood. haldane.co.za