A Passion For Designing Tubular Furniture

I have always had a fascination for furniture that combines a variety of materials like for instance timber and tubular metal. So after many years of designing and manufacturing solid timber furniture I decided to acquire a device for bending metal tube.

The style of furniture that attracted me enormously was by the French designer Jean Prouve who in the fifties came up with a range of lounge chairs that had a unique industrial aesthetic. There seemed to be a unpretentious approach to designing functional furniture that could stand the test of time and had a classic feel to it. For this reason I decided to replicate one of Prouve’s most iconic chairs the so called Visiteur Chair. I was keen to get my head around some of the technical details as how to manufacture a lounge chair that was full of curves and bends and which was for that very reason enormously comfortable.

The short story is that I managed to finish this project and subsequently I designed and made a whole range of furniture in a related style. I would say that most of the design clues can be traced back to mid century furniture aesthetics.

The many interpretations of this style can be found everywhere in New Zealand and have generated a steady following as it often compliments the interiors and architecture that can be found in this part of the world.