Detailed to perfection with a classic appearance, the Parrish Collection by Emeco and German designer Konstantin Grcic was first made for the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York.
The externally modest building of the Parrish Art Museum holds an internal complexity, just like the Parrish Collection – a set of chairs and tables with a subtle design and a heartfelt technical core. Says Grcic, “Developing the mobile interiors for the Parrish Art Museum brings us to the peculiar psychology around chairs used in public spaces – exploring the idea of comfort using very little material. Considering the public self-awareness in a museum seat, the Parrish chair was given a generous seat and a round tube, forming a belt that defines the space around you – a space where you can feel protected.”
The Parrish lounge and side chairs are part of a modular collection, featuring three frames with four optional seats. The recycled aluminum sandblasted frames are available in clear anodized, red or black powder coated finishes. The frames can be combined with different seat types; reclaimed polypropylene, locally sourced wood from Lancaster, PA, Danish fabric from Kvadrat or three luxurious leathers from Spinneybeck. These choices enable different combinations, creating a versatile family. All chairs with reclaimed polypropylene seats are suitable for outdoor use. The table bases are available in two recycled aluminum sandblasted finishes, the clear anodized aluminum finish or the black powder coated finish, in two different heights as café and side tables, which can be combined with two alternative Trespa table tops in pastel grey or black.
“The collaboration with Emeco was always an important part of the project, something I had in mind as an obvious choice for the kind of furniture we needed. It is simply the only company I could think of who could bring a nice mix for this interior concept, specialists in aluminum, delivering another kind of material appearance, environmentally sound, perfect for the both indoor and outdoor and being such a truly American company – it was a perfect match,“ says Grcic.
“When Konstantin asked me if Emeco would be interested in collaborating with him on the Parrish Art Museum I was thrilled. Konstantin is one of the most innovative and original industrial designers of today,” says Emeco’s CEO Gregg Buchbinder. “Konstantin’s degree of perfection combined with his analytical rigour made the product development process deliberate and thoughtful. He managed to leverage our heritage and at the same time push Emeco into the future. The Parrish Chair reminds me of something Le Corbusier might have designed in the 1920s; yet at the same time, it looks fresh, modern, and original – it’s a real artifact of our current culture, a future classic,” Buchbinder continues.
Says Grcic, “I have always had a fascination and admiration of the hard physical labour of the production of the iconic Emeco Navy chair. My ambition for the collaboration was, therefore, to do something that uses the same aluminum work but makes the process more effective, less physically challenging. I think the design of the Parrish chair comes from a close understanding of what Emeco can really do.”
About the Parrish Art Museum
The Parrish Art Museum, founded in 1898, opened the doors of its new, 34,400-square-foot Herzog & de Meuron-designed, building in November of 2012. The new Parrish includes 12,200 square feet of exhibition space – three times that of the Museum’s former home on Jobs Lane in Southampton. Seven sky-lit galleries devoted to the permanent collection showcase the story of America’s most enduring and influential artists’ colony on the East End, uniquely situated within one of the most concentrated creative communities in the United States. The Parrish is dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of art from the nineteenth century to the present, with a particular focus on honoring the rich creative legacy, telling the story of our area, our “sense of place,” and its national – even global – impact on the world of art. The Parrish is committed to educational outreach, serving as a dynamic cultural resource for its diverse community, and to celebrating artistic innovation for generations to come.
About Konstantin Grcic
Konstantin Grcic was trained as a cabinetmaker at The John Makepeace School, before studying Design at the Royal College of Art in London. Since setting up his own practice Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design (KGID) in Munich in 1991, he has developed furniture, products and lighting for some of the leading companies in the design field. Amongst his renowned clients are Authentics, BD Ediciones, ClassiCon, Flos, Magis, Mattiazzi, Muji, Nespresso, Plank, Serafino Zani, Thomas-Rosenthal and Vitra. For Galerie Kreo in Paris, he has created a number of limited edition pieces since 2004. Many of his products have received international design awards such as the prestigious Compasso d’Oro for his MAYDAY lamp (Flos) in 2001 and the MYTO chair (Plank) in 2011. Work by Konstantin Grcic forms part of the permanent collections of the world s most important design museums (a.o. MoMA/New York, Centre Georges Pompidou/Paris). Most recently Konstantin Grcic has curated a number of significant design exhibitions such as DESIGN-REAL for The Serpentine Gallery, London (2009), COMFORT for the St. Etienne Design Biennale (2010) and BLACK2 for the Istituto Svizzero, Rome (2010). In 2012, he was responsible for the exhibition design of the German Pavillon at the 13th Architecture Biennale in Venice. Solo exhibitions of his work have been shown at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam, 2006), Haus der Kunst (Munich, 2006) and The Art Institute of Chicago (2009). The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) appointed Konstantin Grcic “Royal Designer for Industry.” In 2010, he was fellow at Villa Massimo in Rome. Design Miami/ awarded him the title “2010 Designer of the Year.”
About Emeco
Founded in 1944 by Wilton C. Dinges, the Electrical Machine and Equipment Company, now know as Emeco, is a quintessentially American factory based in Hanover, Pennsylvania, USA. Emeco has been the leading manufacturer of handcrafted chairs for 68 years. Emeco is committed to principles that reach back in time, to the values that built the culture and business. Their first product, the aluminum Navy Chair, is made to last a hundred and fifty years. The products are still handcrafted by skilled professionals and the principles that built the first chair still guide the company today. Emeco is built by people who see problems as opportunities, who believe that freedom is only worth something if you use it to create a better world. The people who invent the products understand that new materials and techniques open great vistas of possibility. Like the folks who make the products at Emeco, they take pride in their work, and want to share the best they can do with as many people as possible. At Emeco, the key focus has always been to be selective about the products produced because the intention is to make them for decades to come, avoiding hot design fads or the latest trends.
Like true love, the products from Emeco are forever. Throughout the years, the company has worked with the world’s best designers to create products that will not only stand up, but stand the test of time and grow more beautiful with age. Today, Emeco is on the leading edge of a movement in product development that promises a new, more intelligent and sustainable way of life – producing up-cycled chairs and stools made of recycled aluminum, post consumer rPET or reclaimed WPP. The company has collaborated with some of the world’s leading designers, architects, and partnered with the most respected global bra
nds and businesses, institutions and organizations. Philippe Starck, Jean Nouvel, Andrée Putman, Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, Ettore Sottsass, Christophe Pillet, Michael Young, Coca-Cola and McDonalds, Conrans and Morgans, all have one thing in common – a shared commitment to a better, more beautiful future. Emeco is working to make everything to live up to that vision – continuing to inspire the world’s best.
For more info, visit emeco.net