Claesson Koivisto Rune designs a new seating and table collection for Teknion Studio by hybridizing two seating typologies.
From our work as architects we know that furniture is part of architecture, in ensemble with the house or the room.
The Cover seating and table collection has been designed to harmonize with a wide range of rooms, offices, breakout spaces, lounges or even home environments. In order to achieve this, we have developed a design that ‘hybridizes’ two typologies of seating – the club armchair and the swivel armchair.
When approaching the armchair and the sofa from the rear, they appear as closed, solid volumes, hovering just above the floor. However, viewed from the front, the seats have a more open character and the closed volume is revealed to be a soft shell, open towards the front. This shell, formed by the smooth transition between the armrests and backrest, wraps around the seat cushion in a manner reminiscent of a cape or ankle-length overcoat.
At the front of the chair, in the open space beneath the seat cushion, two choices of beautifully sculpted and precisely manufactured base options are available: A four-star pedestal or slim legs, both in die-cast aluminum. However, these are not simply ‘of the shelf’ parts. We have spent a great deal of time designing the pedestal and the legs exclusively for our Cover collection. This particular type of design work presents a rare opportunity for a designer due to the substantial investment needed for tooling and we have strived to get the detailing of these castings just right.
Although the Cover easy chair and sofa feature generous seats, they also have surprisingly economical outer dimensions, affording Cover a high ‘furnishability’ factor. Without compromising on seating comfort, the curved surfaces are kept in check by continuous, sweeping lines, giving the Cover furniture collection a clearly defined appearance not unlike a well tailored coat or blazer.
