We are seriously considering spending a lot of dough for the Panton Amoebe lounge chair by Vitra.
The problem is, apart from a few online retailers such as hivemodern, nobody offers this chair.
Is this because the chair looks kinda unusual and is not sold that often, or because it is downright uncomfortable to sit in?
We really don't feel like spending that much on a piece of furniture that nobody likes to sit on.
Any hints?
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I looked at the chair on hivemodern.com and the fact that it had a new and improved more comfortable back would concern me. I think it is good that an improvement was made, but I wonder if it was already comfortable and they made a slight improvement or if the chair was more sculpture than sitting aide when it was made (resulting in an unpleasant sitting). I don't know if comfort and aesthetic are your two most important criteria, and if they are then disregard this BUT it seems like that would be potentially very expensive/ difficult to have reupholstered if you ever needed to (I could be wrong, I don't know too much about upholstery). It also seems to be low to the ground (again could be wrong) which could be difficult to get into and out of as you get older. In other words, I like to anticipate what it might be like 20-30 years down the line before I make a purchase.
But if you can afford to buy new furniture like this all the time and don't need to worry about it aging & you aging with it - go for it - it's your money. Good luck!
My two cents....
Regardless comfort, I would look at all these re-editions of lesser known designs with a high degree of scepticism. In most cases the "selection of time" was made quite effectivelly and the pieces that deserved to last survived. In this age of "Human branding" companies understand how much effort it takes to build a person's name into a "brand", To them, the growing interest in mid-century design came as a windfall. Imagine, dozens of well selected names, with each a wide collection of products that had proven to last. Unfortunately most of these designers and architects are not productive anymore...for obvious reasons. Starting new names (branding) has shown to be a very risky business, with some heights but a lot of lows. So it is very tempting to research old archives and re-introduce products that in many cases were not of the quality one can expect from these pioneers. As everybody else, they have there lows and there highs to. A chair like the Amoebe is a good case in point. Verner Panton was asked by Bayer to participate in their Visiona project, much like Joe Colombo and a few others. Basically it was a "look into the future" build by Bayer and shown in different commercial shows that Bayer attended to promote their plastic materials, mostly nylon and polyurethane. It is in that context that Panton designed this chair. I am not suggesting that he did it entirely with his left hand, but you simply do not spend the same amount of time on a product that will be produced for the market, where you have to compete, as for a product that will only "be shown". I have attended a number of the Visionas and in most cases these "environments" were only accessible to a selected number of extremelly good looking models, covered with modest but well colour-coordinated clothes. I am not suggesting that Verner saved on talent what they tried to save on fabric. But the function of these chairs was simply not what you would expect from a comfortable chair...unless comfort is to attract attention and invite the "physically blessed" into revealing positions...
Good point, koen.
So you are suggesting that the reason that this chair is not so well known as, say, the cantilever chair, is because Panton put less effort into it and the design is a little inferior to products that made it into mass production.
While this may be entirely true, I still like the design, and I usually do not select my furniture from the "proven design classics only in my apartment" point of view. Makes many apartments kind of lifeless in my opinion. I would go so far to say that I would still want the chair if I would see it as a no-name at, e.g., Urban Outfitters or Ikea. However, the reason for Vitra to put a >$1000 price tag on a piece of laminate and foam has undoubtely to do with this being an original and relatively unknown Panton design. Which, if I think about it, would probably make me feel a bit ripped off after the purchase. MaybeI should wait for the unavoidable knock-offs to appear, but that's an entirely different discussion.
I agree with your view of...
I agree with your view of sterile interiors due to an 'only classics' policy, but I wouldn't wait for a knock-off. If it doesn't suit your needs (comfort, aesthetics, price) I would pass it over for something that does. Now, if a reputable reproduction arrives that's a different story ...
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