matali crasset: double side for danese

‘double side’ by matali crasset for danese

‘double side’ by paris-based designer matali crasset for italian brand danese is a versatile seat, that with one simple gesture, becomes a work tool – the back of the object flips transforming into a small plane which can be used as a working surface, for eating or just for play. on show at milan design week 2011,  the traditional and comfortable chair is constructed from a birch multilayer laminate in combination with felt. here, crasset has designed the seat not as a fixed element dedicated solely to resting, but rather as an object that allows an exchange between active and passive situations. it maintains familiar elements like its materials and recalls familiar gestures like the one of bolts fixing together two positions together, in order to recreate a connection, a closeness to the person. it is a reflection on a scenario of life in transformation, the product being a physical transposition that derives from it.

‘double side’ with chair back flipped to become a worktop

‘at home today the structures are fixed, like a paused video with a paused picture, life is changing and it’s in movement and it reactivates the video so to speak. my projects work in the interstices of the activities, in passages between one paused picture to another in order to reattach them to one another and to renew the movement and the action in between the spaces.’ – matali crasset

the furniture object can be used for working at the computer

‘double side’ represents an open furniture solution, ideal for public spaces and the overlap of activities and behaviors within such places as waiting rooms and informal meeting places within the interior of offices and halls.

in chair form

demonstrating use as a chair

back view

view with chair back flipped