bert loeschner gives the eames plastic chairs a playful reinterpretation

following his ‘monobloc‘ project, which focused on the ubiquitous white plastic garden chair, bert loeschner’s latest work takes the instantly-recognizable shell chair by charles and ray eames and gives it a series of whimsical modifications. by reinterpreting such an iconic piece, the ‘inspired by eames’ project explores the originals of our design culture in a playful manner.

the object ‘relation’ consists of two handcrafted seatshells in collector’s color scheme salmon and seafoam, self-produced shockmounts, stronger dimensioned rodbases and steambended oak rockers

all images courtesy of bert loeschner

‘inspired by eames’ is a hands-on project choosing works of charles and ray eames and their role in design culture as a medium. the appropriation process by loeschner begins in the nucleus of production – the technique. the series of objects are all handcrafted with developing and improvised industrial production methods in an autodidactive way.

the object ‘representative’​ at the exhibition ‘ceci n’est pas une copie!’ curated by chris meplon at the CID (centre d’innovation et de design) grand hornu museum, belgium

the work ‘representative’ is based upon the first picture on google for the words RAR eames – the chair was recreated flat as an icon using it’s original materials

tile ‘fake vintage salmon style glass fibre’

a range of panels were produced in order to investigate how the fibreglass structure and color of the seat shells from the 50s can be reproduced under different pressures and consistency of the resin

‘dead sidechair wood’ with the original chair, which was used as model and positive (seat shell)

detail of the steambended, handcarved chair leg

tool parts for the front and back of the transformed seat shell, which was vacuum pressed to receive the same glass fibre structure as the original

the shockmounts (dampers between the chair frame and the seat shell) were first printed in 3D, then a tool made of silicone was made to produce the real polyurethane shockmounts

high-glossy seat shell with embedded synthetic fur connected through a transparent shockmount interpretation resting on resin reinforced cardboard legs

project info:

project name: inspired by eames

design: bert loeschner

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lynne myers | designboom