The Red and Blue Chair is a Dutch design classic created by renowned carpenter-turned-architect Gerrit Thomas Rietveld in 1918. It had been often copied by succeeding artists and designers for their conceptual narratives. Our edition is no exception, yet it was rather conceived as reminiscences of our time in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. We imagined reproducing this quintessential masterpiece as a very personal homage, and proceeded with the project in Seoul, where the studio currently is located.

This project is called P.R.O.O.F., an acronym for ‘Profiling Rietveld on original forethought’. Following the designer’s spirit and initial objective to mass-produce the chair with readily available parts, it is our humble attempt to improve the assembly process of this iconic design. Its rectilinear construction is made of standardized aluminum profile system, making it more robust, more versatile, and most importantly flat-packable. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) planks are used for the back and the seat, then connected to the extrusion frame with 3D-printed shock mounts in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), considering recyclable materials and technologies as much as possible.

This cross-cultural and progressive appropriation resulted in a very utilitarian version of the timeless de Stijl archetype.

Photo courtesy of tabial / TIEL