Live at NeoCon: Panelite Basel Lounge
By Jacob Slevin on Monday, June 9th, 2008
So I hit the floor this morning at approximately 7:50AM, which is earlier than I’d like to admit. And in the midst of my foggy stupor, I came across the glowing red Panelite Basel Lounge. I couldn’t help but smile as it truly is amazingly stunning.
The Basel Lounge, originally produced for Art Basel/Miami 2007, is designed exclusively for PANELITE by New York-based furniture designer Matthew Hoey.
The design is a bright red, improbably thin wave, deceptively strong due to PANELITE ’s Cast Polymer honeycomb material. Supported at only four discreet points connected to a three-legged polished stainless-steel base, the graceful wave appears to float above the floor, combining lightness, strength and balance.
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Italian Space Savers 2 Comments Add your own
@ chase, I’d agree with the furniture / sculpture distinction. But I am not against recycling or reusing past design ideas if the end product is still appealing (while I’ll admit that I did not make the connection to Kagan’s lounges). Moreover, as you might suspect, I did not have an opportunity to sit in this lounger so can’t comment on anything along those lines… I too question if this would be comfortable or might it need one hell of a cushion :)
Your review of the panelite chair is a bit too kind if you ask me. The metal leg configuration is a somewhat blatant rip off of Vladimir Kagan’s tri-point lounges from nearly 30 years ago.
More importantly when I touched this chair at its end point it shook life a leaf in the wind. While it IS stunning to look at, lets not forge that the ability for furniture to be used and lived on is what seperates from so much sculpture.