Japan
SANAA
Idee
The chairs, benches and stools punctuating the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art’s architecture are a tangible sign of the invitation to stop and linger. In the case of the SANAA Chair, conceived for the Park Café project in Furukawa in 1998, the elegant profile of its form is constructed with solid thin steel discs and iron rods, reflecting an image of formal clarity. Faced with the “traditional” look of an ordinary four-legged chair, the designer’s hand seems to have stopped to copy the design of its soul. Other seats were also designed for the occasion. In Rocking Chair, the comparison is with an icon of modernity and organic thinking: the bent plywood chair. The design of the objects tries almost to incorporate Michael Lin’s work, which comes out of the wall to continue onto the surface of the chair itself, searching for an environmental harmony. The rocking movement then introduces an unusual form of dynamic perception, a departure from the normal act of walking through rooms. A row of seats is arranged outside like silvered atolls suspended on slender steel rod legs. The sky is reflected on the seat’s concave surface, confirming perhaps the invitation to stop and sit in the sun as the museum opposite is animated by people’s movements. —Francesca Picchi
Michael Lin, New work for 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2004
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