The Pritzker prize-winner is convinced that we carry experience with intensively experienced and used furniture within ourselves, especially in a school environment. It is therefore important to him for this furniture to be made with love and care.
The Pritzker prize-winner is convinced that we carry experience with intensively experienced and used furniture within ourselves, especially in a school environment. It is therefore important to him for this furniture to be made with love and care.
VS: Monsieur Nouvel, you have designed a new chair for VS Vereinigte Spezialmöbelfabriken. How did you approach this commission? How does your design process work?
First of all, I was thrilled to get a commission from VS, because the Danish designer Verner Panton, with whom VS developed the successful Panton range of chairs, is one of my great role models. That's why the commission to develop a chair in the style of Verner Panton was a very special pleasure – but also a great challenge. Because this new chair had to appeal to everyone: children and adults, pupils and students, and it was to work for the office and home.
This commission was so important for me because the chair had to be designed for a large group of customers and to last for a long time. This chair had to have a connection to the influences of the 1920s and 1930s. The influence of Verner Panton extended over 30 years. We want such a perspective as well.
VS: How does your perspective as an architect make itself felt in your work on a piece of school furniture?
Whether JUMPER is used as furniture in schools or elsewhere is not especially foremost in my thoughts. It is important for the chair to be vibrant and represent something specific, also and especially through the way it is manufactured. Because a piece of furniture always represents its time, and this chair therefore has to represent how we manufacture furniture in the 21st century. This chair is a moulded chair that – to use a sporting metaphor – can alternate between the standing leg and the kicking leg. In football or rugby it is important to trick your opponent by suddenly playing with the other foot, and the chair had to have this dynamic as well. That’s why it’s called JUMPER.
But the name suits it very well for another reason, too, because in profile the chair looks like an insect that could move at any time. This mercurial aspect can also be found in the chair’s contours. This vibrancy also comes from the heart-shaped hole in the middle of the chair. Above all, for me it was important that this chair contained something natural and vibrant, in spite or because of the exacting requirements for its design.
VS: What particularly attracted you to the commission to create an object for schools, for children, the future generation?
I am the child of a teaching couple and also the father of a young daughter. I am therefore only too aware that children often perceive chairs as instruments of torture because they would much rather stand up and jump around. I remember my own school desks very well and the chairs that we played hide-and-seek or catch behind. So it was very clear to me that these chairs had to be sturdy to be able to resist the little tornadoes, aka children. Sturdiness therefore had to be a central criterion of the design. I wanted a piece of furniture that is stable and resistant without you being able to see that immediately. I didn’t want people to see immediately that this chair primarily has to be sturdy, but rather that it expresses itself through its colours and shape. The chair is also available in various sizes, in line with the ages of the children. And the colour palette was to be as fresh and vibrant as possible. The fact that the chair is also available in wood gives it a very new feeling. In addition, the chair has to be able to adapt to the various school types. I believe that a piece of furniture has to adapt to a situation, so our design has to react to all possible situations.
‘I am only too aware that children often perceive chairs as instruments of torture because they would much rather stand up and jump around.‘
Jean Nouvel
VS: Your parents were teachers, how has that influenced your design concept?
I always said to my parents that schools should give greater consideration to architecture and design. In my opinion, architecture and design training should be in parallel; here in France everything is too strictly separated. It is also important for pupils to learn from good examples and for them to find these examples at the place where they spend a lot of time, i.e., at school. Otherwise, I have had little to do with educational content, although I have built a very famous educational establishment myself. But I think that the subject of architecture and design also encourages questions from teachers and pupils.
VS: Do you have an educational concept or trend that shapes you?
Yes, I have an educational concept and this concept led to me not teaching – for a very simple reason. It’s not that I don’t like teaching, but in my opinion lessons should only enable pupils to analyse themselves. It’s not about passing on your own knowledge to the pupils. Instead, the teacher must recognise the potential and the interests of the pupil and help them to develop further. That’s how I would describe my educational concept as the child of a teacher couple and frequently questioned instructor. Obviously, you can teach in the form of master classes or in a workshop – I am surrounded by very many young architects in my agency – but education is not a job, it’s a vocation.
VS: How do you understand the connection between school furniture, a classroom and pupils’ experiences of learning?
For me, every object throws up a question for us. Every time we look at an object or a piece of furniture, we become more familiar with it and this experience sticks in our minds. I therefore believe that we carry experience with often-seen and used furniture within ourselves, especially in a school environment. It is therefore important for this furniture to be made with love and care.
VS: How did you find working with VS?
There were very many intensive discussions. I listened attentively, because I don’t usually design objects that are manufactured in such large volumes and are aimed at such a large group of users. To date, I have mostly designed individual pieces for specific buildings. That's why this commission was a completely new experience for me. With JUMPER, for the first time I had to consider very different users from the outset and I was working for a very different age group, but it is precisely this kind of challenge that inspires me.
Designing a piece of furniture can take you along some very unusual paths. The requirement to face new challenges is what inspires new ideas. You make it clear to yourself that the chair will be used in schools, workshops, studios and offices, and then you understand that a chair is a multi-purpose device. It must be suitable for flexible use like a tool – a tool that in this case helps in lessons, when working, when people come together. JUMPER represents an institution through its furnishings, for example in a meeting room. These ideas help me with the design, the lines and contours.
The discussions with VS were about precisely this: the environment and the task that this piece of furniture has to carry out. Such a product has to fulfil so many basic requirements so that it optimally performs its function. The intensive consultations with VS were therefore very useful because questions could be answered, which ensured that this chair is attractive and covetable.
The silhouette of the Philharmonie de Paris, designed by Jean Nouvel, is similar to that of the JUMPER chair. The iridescent surface can also be found in both designs.
VS: How did you find the shape for JUMPER?
In a chair like this, the form has to grow organically, that’s a long, drawn-out process. You can see the goal in front of you, but you may have to concentrate on a specific aspect for a long time to then change the shape by only five millimetres. It’s also important to consider where you can grasp the chair, on the top, at the bottom or in the middle, to move it. We also talked about the surface structure, about various types of plastic and different frame shapes. There is therefore a great deal of collective work behind the details. There was also the matter of working on the different versions of the chair, because they had to differ in very specific aspects, but each version still had to be typically ‘JUMPER’. That’s a very long process.
VS: What about ergonomics: how does the chair adapt to the body?
I’ve tried it out. During our interview I’m sitting on a JUMPER and I feel very comfortable. But naturally there are people who are shorter or taller than me, so this chair had to be able to adapt to all body sizes and also different seating postures. Ergonomic aspects are therefore intensively considered in the design process and also have to be practically tested.
Where can the flexibility of this chair be seen that also inspired you to give it the name JUMPER?
If you want to jump, you need flexibility. JUMPER therefore couldn't be stiff. The chair should be supportive in movement. We achieved this with the inner tension and stability of the structure and with the position and structure of the chair legs. You really do sit flexibly on JUMPER, quite literally.
VS: What about the seat?
That, too, is flexible, just like the basic structure. However, the degree of this flexibility varies depending on the chair version. It depends on the frame shape, but the customer can choose that. Above all, the chair adapts to the customers’ wishes, there is the right version for everyone’s needs. That, too, is a form of flexibility.
VS: If you were to give advice to a designer or interior designer for such a project, what would you say?
First of all, I would point out that they wouldn’t get the opportunity to carry out such a project again very quickly. I would advise them to thoroughly rethink their concept and really consider how the chair can be made to feel good for as many people as possible. The JUMPER is not necessarily a chair that bowls you over. It’s much rather a chair that meets all your requirements and that will be there as a support for its users for many years.
What are the most important properties that should convince a customer to buy the chair?
If someone buys this chair – but the buyer will only very rarely be the people who will sit on it – so, it’s better to say, If someone uses this chair, they will spend many hours and years on it, whether they are a pupil or student or in another workplace. I think the JUMPER is designed in such a way that the user will feel a familiarity with the chair. And that is exactly what you need to feel comfortable on a chair: that it’s familiar. In French, we say ‘devenir familier’, in other words, becoming part of the family.
VS: How do you assess the technical expertise and the testing facilities at VS?
I was very impressed by the many different considerations and testing procedures that VS uses to achieve technical and ergonomic perfection and to test durability. Creating the perfect chair is a real obstacle race!
VS: How was working with a German company for you?
I admit that the striving for perfection surely has something to do with the fact that VS is a German company. That’s just as much the case for chairs as for cars and other German products.
VS: Thank you for the interview, Monsieur Nouvel.
He works with many well-known furniture manufacturers. Many of his products have won design prizes – such as Stakki, his iconic three-legged chair that he developed for VS.
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