Labels relating to function or aesthetics can get in the way of designing great furniture, Danish designer Cecilie Manz says in an exclusive interview.
"The industry likes to label everything," she told Dezeen.
"Why can't a nice chair just be a nice chair" As long as it's comfortable, people can judge for themselves where it works best."
Cecilie Manz designed the Monolit chair for Fritz Hansen
Manz was discussing Monolit, a chair she developed with Danish manufacturer Fritz Hansen, which launches this week as part of 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen.
Monolit is an upholstered plywood shell chair with leather edging details, available in two different heights.
Manz's aim with this project, she explained, was simply to create a chair that allows someone to sit comfortably for a long period without taking up too much space in a room. The upholstered plywood shell chair features leather edging details
She believes that categories like "dining chair" or "lounge chair" make it harder for designers to create products that will remain useful as tastes and lifestyles change in the future.
"It can be a constraint; the chair must be a certain height or dimensions," Manz said. "I wanted to take a step back; my wish was just to make a nice, comfortable chair."
This sense of functional ambiguity is a common theme in the Copenhagen-based designer's work.
Manz's aim was to create a comfortable chair that doesn't take up much...