One of my first tasks as an industrial design intern, nearly twenty years ago, was to archive the draftings coming off of a plotter machine the size of two refrigerators. I'd bring the fresh prints to the File Room, which was filled with flat-file drawers holding draftings that traveled back in time; by rifling through the lower right corners of each page, where the title blocks were, I could drill down and get to decades-old, hand-drafted sheets of old product designs scrawled onto mylar and vellum. As a wide-eyed student I found it fascinating that all of these things were saved, and that in theory, I could take one of these older drawers to a current-day modelmaker or tool-cutter and have them reproduce the object.
Carl Hansen & Son is a Danish furniture outfit that's over a century old, and they've recently done their own version of diggin' in the crates. In the section of their file room filled with work by Hans J. Wegner, the Danish Modern designer, they found blueprints for a sofe he designed in the mid-'60s. And now, nearly fifty years later, Wegner's mid-century modern piece is once again rolling off of the assembly line, in two- and three-seat versions named CH162 and CH163.
What's interesting about this particular sofa is what it's stuffed with; Wegner chose, of all things, feathers for the original design.
...In 1965 when the original was introduced, feather filled cushions were revolutionary. "The sofa series was originally known as the 'Down Cushion Sets', because cushions filled with feathers were an innovation at the time. Wegner chose feather cushions to create a soft and inviting look - a style that broke with the standard practice of using cushions of fixed upholstery." says Knud Erik Hansen, CEO of Carl Hansen & Son.
The announcement is so new that the sofas are not yet on Carl Hansen & Son's website, but you can see other Wegner pieces they produce here.
via 3 rings
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