 |
|
| |
  
|
Bonet and his daughter |
A CHAIR WITH HISTORY
Three young architects (one Catalan, Antonio Bonet Castellana, and two Argentines, Juan Kurchan and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy) had arrived in Argentina after they met in the Parisian atelier of Swiss architect Le Corbusier.
In December 1938 the BKF was born from ideas that began in Paris, a chair consisting of an iron frame of 12 mm with a leather hanging. The leather was commissioned by a saddler Rossi Caruso firm, firm that manufactured the mounts for polo players of the moment. The artisan, Cuatrini, had his workshop in Castelar (Buenos Aires). He not only made Bonet's other models, but also the prototype for the Safari BKF designed by Amancio Williams, which they sent to New York. The BKF chair was on display at Harrods and was presented in the First Hall of Decorative Artists of Buenos Aires in 1943, organized by the National Ministry of Culture, and won First Prize.
Antonio Bonet and his daughter. |
|
 BKF at MoMA |
|
After the award won by BKF in 1943, the American Edgar Kaufman Jr., curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA), bought two cairs at $25 each.
One was for the museum's permanent collection, the other for one of his father's homes, a collector of architecture, as he had a house Neutra, another in Mies, and the other third was the famous Falling Water house of Frank Lloyd Wright, which was where the BKF came to reside.
In 1944, BKF received the Acquisition of MOMA prize, and in 1945 was presented in the Pavilion "Jeu de Pomme" in Paris.
There the chair was seen by the director of the magazine Architecture d'Aujourd'hui,where he asked for it and began to produce them to sell to subscribers.
He used the name “AA chair”, although this was not economically beneficial to the original designers when compared to the production in the U.S.
Soon after, the company Hans Knoll started production of the armchairs.
The son of a renowned furniture maker in Germany began to produce under the name Butterfly for the company Knoll International, beginning in 1947, until the war stopped production because of the use of steel.
|
|
|
| |
 |
In a 1954 article, George Nelson presents the Tripolina, the chair used by the Italian officers in North Africa, like a folding BKF. Thus was established the connection between the BKF and Tripolina. The architects did not know in 1938 the existence of the Tripolina.
BKF at MoMA
In the sixties, the BKF was produced at Six, a company of which John Kurchan was a partner and there he turned to the few architects who knew of the BKF.
Like any piece of culture, the most interesting thing is to find the original, a very difficult thing to do with the BKF. Perhaps the original or first, is the one in the MOMA in New York.
This piece works in environments like a contemporary sculpture, aerial and lightweight, not depending on the architectural box, either inside or outside, and it possesses independence because it an stand on its own and still meld with other furniture without matching completely.
The BKF represents not only the design to come, also the design criteria characteristic of Argentina: constructive synthesis, functional freedom and current form.
The BKF is considered one of the pieces of the most prominent modernist industrial design and distributed the last half century and is, without a doubt, the Argentine design product most known the world over. Its impact, both in the design culture and pop culture, lies in its clear synthesis, achieving universal and timeless qualities. Its authors, architects Bonet, Kurchan and Ferrari Hardoy never imagined the global impact that this chair would have, to the point of becoming an “cult object ".
Austral Group, creators of the original BKF |
|
| |
| Tienda Malittia. Calle Arevalo 2858, Las Cañitas, Belgrano, Buenos Aires. |
| Tel : (++5411) 4779 1364 / 9665 Cel 15 5963 6373 |
| sales@bigbkf.com.ar |
| |
|
|
diseño por: www.avefenixdesign.com.ar |
|
| |
|
|
