Four Chairs in One

Dripta Roy, Co-Founder of Puur Design Studio, doesn’t hide the firm’s newcomer status, even referring to the fledgling trio of himself, Frank Van de Ven, and Max Schulkens as “new kids on the block.”

Notwithstanding the unfortunate and, no doubt, unintended, evocation of an early 90s boy band, Roy’s point is well taken: that fresh minds see with fresh eyes. Nor is Roy bashful about Puur’s objective: “designs are created everyday but too much is wasted in order to make one item do a million things. The art is in the simplicity of a design, not the complication through excess mechanisms. We hold true to our philosophy of never walking away from a challenge. Moreover, we make things look better than others.” Touché, one might respond. Well here’s a challenge for you, Mr. Roy: make me a chair that’s a consummate space-saver; that disappears inside itself like the proverbial Russian doll; that bears out your notions of “artful simplicity,” and “unique, sustainable materials.” And while you’re at it, make it beautiful to look at, make it reminiscent of the bentwood masters, of Aalto, Eames, Gehry…

Done and Done. Just have a look at the aptly named “Magic.” Designed by Roy, Magic is really four chairs in one, since the matching silhouettes and slightly diminishing sizes allow a seamless nestled integration. This impressive disappearing trick (one imagines innumerable demonstrations at parties!) is thus achieved by simply sliding one chair inside the next, temporarily banishing the picturesque negative space of each individual unit to form an even more picturesque whole (the solid “baby chair” that completes this picture also doubles as a footrest/ottoman). The ensemble certainly achieves Roy’s aspirations for a simplistic minimalism, not to mention addressing the frustrating space constraints of Manhattanites and Parisiennes, of Berliners and San Franciscans, of anyone for whom living room re-arrangement has become second nature. Well, it may be time to re-think such practices: with Magic you can have your beautiful bentwood chairs and your vaunted floor space too.