The second event of the "Four Diamonds" was a lecture by Konstantin Grcic. On the evening of Wednesday, October 3, he introduced his Chair One to a full auditorium in the spaces next to the new 3DH showroom at River Diamond in Prague. The story of the creation of this specific chair, which he designed for the Italian brand Magis, was presented by the owner and founder of the famous brand, Mr. Eugenio Perazza, who flew in for this year's Designblok (read a separate article about his appearance on Professional's Day).
The collaboration with Konstantin Grcic began in 1999 when he visited Magis' stand at the Milan fair, and Perazza approached him with an offer of collaboration. "Grcic refused," says Perazza. A year later, the situation repeated itself, and the same happened the following year. "In the meantime, I was thinking about why Grcic didn’t want to work for our brand when there are plenty of designers out there who would give anything to design for us," Perazza continued. "There were probably several reasons, but the main one was that Konstantin associated Magis primarily with plastic furniture. We said to ourselves, we will come up with a new technology and expand our production capabilities with injection-molded aluminum," Perazza added. After three years of rejections, Konstantin and Perazza reached an agreement, and the story of Chair One began.

One of the most famous chairs of recent years is making its way into the world of design classics. It is still waiting for its "discovery" and its moment of greatest glory, but in about two or three years, it will be at the top, according to Perazza. The story of the collaboration, which began in 2001 and still continues today, was then presented in a very personal narration directly by Konstantin Grcic. "At the beginning, there was no marketing study or lengthy presentations and discussions with management about what and how should be created," Grcic began. Magis is a family business, and Mr. Perazza decides directly, in collaboration with his son, what and how will be produced. The tradition of Italian family business in design is based on the experiences and also the intuition of the owners themselves. They bear the responsibility and choose what and how will be produced further. "We started modeling with wires and paper," Grcic describes, projecting very personal and engaging photographs from the studio, where he and his assistant cut papers and shape wires with scissors… The first models emerge, and Mr. Perazza often meets with Grcic, personally overseeing the creation of the prototype.

"We always met halfway, in motels or in Mr. Perazza's favorite Austrian brewery," says Konstantin, showing one photograph after another. In the end, hundreds of details are fine-tuned, including a study of the load on individual parts of the chair, modeling technical proportions and material dimensions. It is surprising how conservatively the design of Chair One actually developed: no 3D modeling or teams of specialists dissecting millimeter by millimeter. The harmony between the company owner and the designer, based on trust in the right decision and good outcome, has been and continues to be the driving force of the entire collaboration so far.

The first prototype was created in one of the Italian factories, and Konstantin smiles as he shows simple and, for some, surprisingly outdated machines. And also the ordinary workers who molded this "cosmic" chair. In the following phases, details were again adjusted, color combinations were selected (Chair One is now produced in red, black, and white), and Konstantin also designed a cushion for the chair. "Everyone said it's hard, it could use a cushion," he adds with a smile. Two years of work are slowly coming to an end, and Chair One goes into production…
Technology: injection-molded aluminum. Shape: diamond style (as Eugenio Perazza himself calls it). Use: interior and exterior. Bases: classic legs or concrete. Premiere: Milan 2003. Further journeys of Chair One: the entire Family One is created: table, bar stool, grouped seating for public interiors.

Chair One is step by step making its way into the world and has begun to lead its own life, which also brings various forms of copying and "inspiration"... And then various completely unexpected situations in which Konstantin, his friends, and supporters find the chair. At the end of his presentation, he introduced this "second life" of Chair One. Tadao Ando sits at the airport on Chair One. Herzog and de Meuron include it in their museum project… and Konstantin himself rides a bike in a movie holding Chair One…
"You design something, devote several years of your life to it, and then you just watch what happens. Do I know if any of my designs will be successful here? Absolutely not… You can never know," he adds.
Konstantin Grcic enchanted in Prague with his modest demeanor and at the same time a very evocative story of the creation of one specific chair. His work shows that even by using traditional methods, without collaboration with marketing teams, excellent results can be achieved.

Written for the design portal www.myCode.cz