Thonet Furniture Design Museum London, Pan European Living Room, Interior, Pictures

Thonet at Design Museum, London

Pan European Living Room Installation by OMA in England, UK – Products & Classics

15 Nov 2016

Thonet at Design Museum, London, UK

Thonet is naturally at home in the new Design Museum

At home in the world’s living rooms – and top design museums:

Thonet icons take their place in the Pan European Living Room, an installation by OMA for the re-launch of the Design Museum, London

Renowned furniture innovator Thonet, whose iconic designs have had an immeasurable influence on the furniture industry for nearly 200 years, is delighted to have been selected to feature in one of the special installations created for the re-opening of London’s prestigious Design Museum.

On November 24th 2016, the Design Museum opens the doors to its new Kensington location and celebrates with a fascinating exhibition entitled Fear and Love – Reactions to a Complex World. This multi-disciplinary event features eleven distinct installations and explores how design is deeply connected not just to commerce and culture but to urgent underlying global issues – issues that inspire fear and love.

Conceived by OMA, the architecture practice founded by Rem Koolhaas, The Pan European Living Room is a response to the shock-waves of Brexit. Furnished with a piece of design from each of the 28 EU member states, the installation proposes that our very notion of the domestic interior has been shaped by an ideal of European cooperation and trade. The centrepiece of the room is a vertical blind in the form of the OMA-designed barcode flag for the EU.

The two pairs of chairs selected from Thonet’s extensive portfolio for this installation represent benchmarks, both in furniture design, and in the company’s remarkable history. The famous 214 chair, also known as the ‘Vienna Coffee House’ chair was created by master carpenter Michael Thonet in 1859 and its inventive construction made it the first ‘mass produced’ piece of furniture.

Pioneering the bentwood process, Thonet still produces this and other original classics today, also offering them in a wide choice of contemporary finishes and details. The styling chosen for the Pan European Living room is a black wood stain with a wickerwork seat.

From the pivotal Bauhaus era of design, Marcel Breuer’s S 32 chair has also been selected. Developing the ground-breaking technology of subtly flexing, cantilevered tubular steel, this chair has been part of the Thonet portfolio since 1930 and remains a highly popular choice among design aficionados. At the Design Museum it will be shown in a black stain for the wooden sections and with a wicker seat and backrest.

The museum will re-open on November 24th and the Pan European Living Room installation will be in place until April 23rd 2017, however, several other key Thonet pieces also feature in the permanent collection of the Design Museum.

Thonet at Design Museum images / information received 151116

Design Museum, London

24 Oct 2016

Thonet Furniture at Orgatec

Thonet Furniture

While at imm cologne and the Salone del Mobile in Milan, the focus was on furniture for creating holistic living environments, at Orgatec Thonet concentrated on comprehensive working worlds: from co-working office spaces with a ‘living room’ feel to home offices with a high standard of design and conference rooms with a ‘make yourself at home’ ambience:

Thonet Furniture at Orgatec

photo : Thonet