Haworth - Plia and Penelope - Over 40 Years of Successful Classic Italian Design
22.11.2008 08:05:45
http://www.haworth-europe.de/en/news_events_all/news_all_archiv/2007/07-07-30_penelope_plia_.php
22.11.2008 08:05:45
http://www.haworth-europe.de/en/news_events_all/news_all_archiv/2007/07-07-30_penelope_plia_.php
Plia and Penelope - Over 40 Years of Successful Classic Italian Design
Two Haworth design classics have their anniversary this year: The visitor chair Penelope, which has been an item on the list of office planners around the world for the past 25 years and Plia, the folding chair that still fascinates the design enthusiasts with its distinctive single pivot, three disc construction looks back on a full 40 years of tremendous success.
Back in the 1980's, when offices became part of daily life, designers started to construct more ergonomic seating, better suited to the demands of the human anatomy. Charles Pollock, the renowned designer, then developed one of the very first visitor's chairs. In 1982, the designer surprised the public with a totally new design combining the comfort of a permeable steel net seat shell and a free-swing steel frame. This hitherto unknown degree of comfort in an office chair quickly made Penelope a design classic and one of the most popular models in the castelli range which is today a Haworth brand.
But even before the birth of Penelope, castelli (today Haworth) enjoyed tremendous success with Plia, the folding chair and the beginning of a totally new era in chair design. The designer Giancarlo Piretti, who taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, developed the very first prototype in a new type of seating which pointed the way ahead in both material and design. Plia was specifically designed for universal use in any environment; a principle that was followed successfully these past 40 years. Thanks to the three-disc pivot, Plia can be folded using only one hand, making it a highly practical and extremely flexible seating option.
The Plia, designed in 1967 was first presented at the Milan Furniture Fair in September 1970 with overwhelming success, was declared as a revelation of the plastic era and was also "discovered" by the Milan fashion world. The chair that Piretti envisaged, developed and produced by castelli at this time (today Haworth) has become a classic object that has since been sold well over 6 million times world-wide.
Both Penelope and Plia belong to the so-called Italo-Design era which had its heyday in the 1960's and 1970's. Both chairs are now part of the exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Although both chairs now look back on many years of success, they still incorporate the creative energy and interaction of materials for which the Mediterranean design and lifestyle are so well known.