Verner Panton (1926-1998) was a Danish designer whose creations still elicit a great deal of admiration for their invention and modern creativity. He was not averse to utilizing plastics, metal, or other man-made materials in striving for the forms he pursued. His most famous piece of furniture is his Panton Chair made of one solid piece of molded material.
He is also known for his Cone Chairs, especially the Heart Cone Chair.
For more information about Verner Panton, visit this link.
What we are interested in for this article is his contribution to Ikea in the form of a chair.
The Vilbert Chair for Ikea was an edition in small quantities with the signature of Panton sold in 1995. The chair was made of a melamine covered MDF constructed by four rectangular pieces surrounding two smaller central pieces providing the stability of the chair. The remarkable thing about the chair is that it looks as though it certainly couldn’t work to hold any weight, that it would break at the seat or fall apart at the back.
I enjoy designing furniture and do quite a bit of it. Most of the furniture in my home was designed and built by me. I have a tendency to “over” engineer the furniture I make and create from a simple desire to make sure the structures are stable and strong and durable.
However, this Vilbert Chair defies this rationale, boldly, confidently making use of the materials and daring structure to become part of the aesthetic. For me, producing such a chair with the fewest and simplest materials fosters a bit of a scare. From what I have read, instead of plywood, the chair is made of a melamine covered MDF or medium density fiberboard. If you work with construction materials like I do, you know the difficulty in using MDF for furniture, especially when using screws to attach edges. MDF has a tendency to split.
To strengthen the chair a central core of two pieces of material provides the attachment of all the parts. Not having an example for ready examination, I am not sure what attachment mechanism is used. Pictures seem to display screws but there must be more to it than embedding screws into the central pieces. My impulse would be to utilize a furniture grade plywood instead of MDF. Besides, a popular mid-century material such as plywood provides a great look for such pieces of furniture.
As for the style of the chair, Panton has reduced the sculptural form of this chair to 4 planes, a very modernist, abstracted way of looking at the design. In order to preserve the impossible look of the chair, he has set back the central connectors as an attempt to have them disappear from view. All this harkens back to those creations of Rietveld or the paintings of Mondrian. I have even engaged in such reductions to the simple planes. My Simplest Dining Chair has but four rectangular pieces, for instance. (For an article on this, visit this site.)
At any rate, the following is some rather cursory instructions on producing your own reproduction of the Vilbert Chair.
One would start by cutting out the four rectangular pieces that comprise the back, seat, front, and back leg support out of a quality grade of plywood. Due to the complicated angles of the boards and the central connections, the rectangles cannot be simple and have a whole number or simple fraction measurements.
It should be noted that if you wish to emulate the color schemes of the original Vilbert Chairs, you will need to put a finish on the surfaces before assembling the parts. This means you will need to take care when you are putting the parts together.
The back is 1′ 4-1/8″ wide and 2′ 1-7/16″ long. The bottom edge of the back is beveled to 53.7-degrees.
The seat is 1′ 4-1/4″ long and, as the back, is 1′ 4-1/8″ wide. The back edge of the seat is beveled at 78.5-degrees. The seat inclines upward at 3.6-degrees.
The front is 1′ 6-11/16″ tall and matches the other two pieces in width. The top edge is beveled at 67-degrees. Now, this illustration does not have the edges touching the ground beveled. If you wish to bevel the edges of the front and the back leg support, the angle should parallel the other angles. In this case, the beveled edge at the bottom would be the same 67-degrees.
The back leg support is 1′ 5-7/16″ tall and matching the other pieces in width. The beveled edge where it abuts the front is 65.8-degrees.
You can cut the two core pieces by creating a triangle that intersects along two lines, one 78.5-degrees and at 53.7-degrees. By measuring down 3-15/16″ from the intersection point on the 53.7-degree line and measuring down 3-7/8″ on the 78.5-degree line, you can draw a line across the triangle to indicate where to cut away material. By using 4-15/16″ down further from the cut line mark on the 78.5-degree line and 6-3/4″ on the 53.7-degree line. Once you cut one, you can use it as a template for the other. These two central pieces are critical in connecting all the parts together.
There are possibly other methods of making the marks for the cuts of these two pieces. You might tape the rectangular pieces together in their proper orientation and simply mark the central core onto a piece of cardboard and, after cutting out the cardboard form, using it as a template to cut the two core pieces. In this way, you do not have to be involved in complicated angles and measurements.
The two core pieces which provide the support and connections of the chair are offset from the outer edges by 3″.
As with all the other pieces, the seat has two screws in each of the two core pieces in order to connect it to all the other rectangles. The screws utilized can vary but I would suggest at least 2-1/2″ wood or construction screws in predrilled holes. You will also need to countersink the holes so the heads do not sit above the surface. If you are a worrier like me, you can also use a thicker material for the two core pieces instead of plywood and anything can be placed between the two core pieces since once the rectangular pieces are attached nothing can be seen between their inside surfaces. This would allow for more screws for support.
The Verner Panton Vilbert Chair is so reduced to basic forms that its originality comes shining through. And although it looks entirely modernist, it was designed by an iconic figure that even at the later stage of his life could exhibit how modernism still had a long way to go before coming to the end of the road.
HBosler
You must log in to post a comment.