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The magnificent 7

SINGAPORE — It is one of the most recognisable chairs in the world and, last week, on its 60th anniversary, Arne Jacobsen’s iconic Series 7 design received the Singapore treatment. Seven local designers showed their creativity with renditions of the Series 7, which were unveiled at the Fritz Hansen showroom.

SINGAPORE — It is one of the most recognisable chairs in the world and, last week, on its 60th anniversary, Arne Jacobsen’s iconic Series 7 design received the Singapore treatment. Seven local designers showed their creativity with renditions of the Series 7, which were unveiled at the Fritz Hansen showroom. 

Luxury bath, kitchen and furniture studio W Atelier, an authorised Fritz Hansen dealer in Singapore, got designers Colin Seah from Ministry of Design, Robert Greg Shand from Robert Greg Shand Architects, Sam Ang from Grey Canopy, Peter Tay of Peter Tay Studios, Terence Chan from Studio Terre, Brendon Lim from IMAJIN, and Leong Hon Kit and Si Jian Xin from Wynk Collaborative to contribute to this project, called 7 Architects x Series 7.

It was a project that didn’t come easy to some of the designers. “This was a task that was extremely difficult for me as nothing should be done to the chair. The chair is already beautiful in itself,” said President’s Design Award 2014 winner Peter Tay. He decided to reflect the thinking of Jacobsen by smoothing out his chair, placing a reflective sticker on the back for the chair to merge with any environment and titling his piece the Anywhere chair.

Seah also had something similar in mind. He covered his Series 7 with a chrome film for it to mirror its surroundings. Others such as Chan and Lim took a more tactile approach: While Chan applied gold leaf to his chair, Lim’s version featured a  woven slip-on made by Indonesian artisans — which was partly inspired by the image of model Christine Keeler posing naked with the Series 7 in a 1963 photo.

Others gave the chair a more dramatic turnaround: Ang removed the legs entirely and turned it into an interactive art piece; Shand conceived a villa based on the shape of the chair; while Leong and Si took theirs to new heights, making it look similar to a lifeguard’s chair with colours inspired by the sky and sea.

The seven chairs are currently on display at the Fritz Hansen showroom until 30 June and will be at the National Design Centre from July 9 to 10 before being showcased at various venues around Singapore.

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