PP Mobler is a family-run Danish carpentry workshop founded in 1953 and has a strong tradition of crafting high-quality designer furniture. Motivation has always been a love of wood. The company’s philosophy is that technique, ingenuity and craftsmanship can be combined in the search for quality.
The catalog is almost entirely dedicated to the projects of the Danish architect Hans J. Wegner, who had a long and important partnership with this small Danish manufacturing company; Wegner loved to stop in PP Mobler’s laboratory, where his ideas took shape; here he could touch and perceive the professional connection between designer and craftsman and feel the pride and respect for high quality craftsmanship. For its part, the designer has always provided this small laboratory with exciting and difficult tasks, always perceiving the uncompromising request for quality and the commitment to experiment with the material.
Between 1960 and 1968 many of Wegner’s prototypes were developed at PP Mobler before going into production at other companies, while after 1968 the designer began to design the first models for the production of PP Mobler, a very important event for this small laboratory, which began to organize a small catalog on its own. Wegner continued his exploration of the possibilities of wood in terms of form and construction even more freely.
Today PP Mobler produces a wide selection of Wegner furniture, most chairs, especially those with the most complex construction, that no one else could make. Among these, “The Round One”, as Wegner liked to call it with its typical provincial modesty, is one of the most famous Danish furniture in the world, summarizing in a simple and modest way the essence of the tradition of woodworking and the philosophy of the Danish design. It is Hans’ most important work. J. Wegner.
When Johm F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon met in the first televised election debate in 1960, they sat on the Round Chair, chosen primarily for its great comfort and its genuine quality; eventually the Americans found a new and more eloquent name for this chair: they called it, and continue to call it, simply “the chair”.
In the PP Mobler catalog there are many other Wegner projects, not only chairs, but also armchairs, tables and desks, such as the Peacock Chair from 1947, the Folding chair from 1949, the Papa Bear Chair from 1951, the Rocking chair from 1984, The Circle Chair from 1986…
A separate discussion should be reserved for the 1950 Flag Halyard Chair relaxation armchair, one of the very rare Wegner projects not in wood, but with a stainless steel structure and 240 meters of rope to form the seat and back, with the addition of a long-haired sheepskin resting on top. Despite having obvious preferences for wood, Wegner shows his bold and courageous appetite for creation in this project. With the Flag Halyard Chair, the designer pays tribute to the first modernist designers such as Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, and proves to be able to master stainless steel with the same elegance as the wood master. The Flag Halyard Chair remains one of the highest examples of Danish design and one of the most desired royal armchairs in the world.
Vitra
Vitra is a Swiss company dedicated to improving the quality of homes, offices and public spaces through the power of design, founded in Weil am Rhein in 1950 by Willi Fehlbaum, owner of a furniture store in nearby Basel. Its products are developed in an impeccable, intensive design process, which brings together engineering excellence with the creative genius of internationally renowned designers. The goal, since the early 1950s, is to create functional and stimulating interiors, furniture and accessories through some guiding principles such as longevity of materials, impeccable construction, high quality and the importance of aesthetics, as demonstrated from the great classics, many still in production since 1950.
The great American design classics were in fact the starting point of the Vitra catalog, thanks to the agreement already in 1946 with the American Herman Miller for the purchase of the rights to produce the vast collection of Charles and Ray Eames in Europe. Willi Fehlbaum was struck by the plans of the spouses Eames during a trip to America and wanted at all costs to produce them and propose them to the European market. Masterpieces such as the Eames Chair, the Aluminum Group, the Upholstered Lounge Chair, the Elephant Stool, the Fiberglass chairs … therefore began to be known and appreciated also in Europe thanks to Vitra. Subsequently to this production were added the works of other historical masters of international design such as George Nelson, Verner Panton, Jean Prouvé and to follow, in more recent years, the works of contemporary designers and architects such as Antonio Citterio, the Bouroullec brothers, Mario Bellini, Ron Aram, Jasper Morrison, Alberto Meda, Philippe Starck …
After a terrible fire, which devastated the entire factory in 1981, the English architect Nicholas Grimshaw was called to design the new factory, ready in just 6 months, which was joined in 1986 by another building by the Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza, starting what will become the future Vitra Campus, or the most important grouping in Europe and probably in the world of contemporary architecture in a limited space. Among the many buildings we can mention the Vitra Design Museum by Frank O. Gehry from 1989, the Tadao Conference pavilion from 1993, the Zaha Hadid Fire Station from 1993, the installation in 2003 of a petrol designed in 1953 by Jean Prouvé until the most recent VitraHaus by the architects of Basel Herzog & de Meuron in 2010, the Diogene structure of Renzo Piano in 2013 or the factory of the Japanese studio SAANA in 2013. The Vitra Campus has become in a few years destination much frequented by design enthusiasts and not only, thanks to the guided visits to the various factories, the numerous exhibitions and displays on design in its museum and to many initiatives related to the world of design and art.
Currently the Vitra catalog is divided into 2 parts. one dedicated to the home, the Home Collection, and one dedicated to contract and office, with a lot of sensitivity towards smart working. In these 2 parts the proposals of the Masters of design such as the Eames, Jean Prouvé, Verner Panton are always balanced … and the contemporary projects of designers such as the Bouroullec brothers, Hella Jongerius, Konstanto Grcic, Jasper Morrison and many others.
Wewood
Wewood is a Portuguese brand founded in 2010 in Granda, the result of the research and development of Móveis Carlos Alfredo, historic company specialized in the production and export of traditional solid wood furniture since 1964: a new division aimed at contemporary design and more experimental forms, without forgetting the solid roots linked to the tradition of woodworking.
The catalog consists of a part dedicated to the home and another for the office and the world of work; each piece comes from the inspiration and creativity of talented young designers and architects, transforming the wisdom and experience of local craftsmen into tangible reality. A small and young family, which takes care of all phases, from design to construction, from distribution to sale. In Portugal, in fact, especially in the areas surrounding the town of Granda, there is a great tradition of small manufacturing companies dedicated to the export of solid wood, in particular walnut and oak, and of some workshops for the creation of wood furnishings.
Wewood believes in the importance of high-end carpentry with the production of solid furniture in order to promote Portuguese culture and design, still little known in the rest of Europe, but with great potential and a long history behind it; The team, made up of very young kids, works every day to create products that represent values ??such as passion, function, aesthetics and know-how, which testify to the brand’s DNA.
The dedication present in all stages of production, and the combination of craftsmanship and high technology certify a natural product made with passion and competence.
The collection includes various types of furniture: containers, tables, chairs, sofas, all with a wooden structure, the result of careful craftsmanship combined with a design, which evokes the shapes and proportions of the 50s, openly citing some historical protagonists of the world of design, such as Professor Carlo Scarpa, among the best known and most refined personalities of Italian design. In fact, a sideboard of the same name is dedicated to him in walnut and oak, with inlaid sliding doors and legs from the typical 1950s line; the same belief is also available in other clearer and less elaborate variants.
A separate discussion must be dedicated to the Smart Shelf by designer Laurindo Marta, which represents one of the most iconic pieces of the entire collection: a bookcase that, thanks to the patented locking pins, can take on different configurations, having fun changing the shape and the size. The same is made of light oak or dark walnut.