Alexander Lervik

Press / 1999

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"A new millennium is almost here. Personally, I am waiting with excitement for what will happen on the other side of the turn of the millennium. How will design develop? Which materials will become popular? How will I be changed by this?"

text mobelpobeldesign - Tore Borgersen & Espen Voll photo: Alexander Lervik

Alexander Lervik surrounded by his design creations representing the twentieth century.

MAISON | 89

The newly graduated Norwegian/Swedish designer Alexander Lervik, 27 years old, was so successful with his graduation project at Beckmans School of Design last year that he has since received several awards for it. After three years at Beckmans, Alexander is ready to begin his career. He started it in April by presenting his graduation project at the International Furniture Fair in Milan. The project consists of ten stools and had previously been shown in Sweden, Egypt, and France.

The ten stools represent Alexander's interpretation of this century's ten decades. He selected what he experienced as most typical of each decade and then interpreted it in his furniture. To truly capture what was characteristic of each era, he thoroughly studied every conceivable artistic expression, from art to fashion via architecture, design, and film. Against this visual collage, he then held up his own three-dimensional mirror of time, and based on its reflection, he then designed his stool, as an icon of its contemporary era.

The view of history and its interpretation forms a foundation for an understanding of the future. To prepare for the changes to come, Alexander Lervik has chosen to look back in time.

Turn of the century. Design in the decade after the turn of the century was characterized, among other things, by the relationship between man and machine. Artists began working with industry and with industrial methods. The designer was born. “Ornament is crime”, said one of the bravest champions of new modern design at the time, Adolf Loos. A period of simplification in the design language began. Alexander drew his inspiration from designers and architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Josef Hoffmann, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, all known for working with simple, geometric shapes and distinct graphic expressions. The stool is manufactured in clear-lacquered wood.

1940-1950. The world is at war and designers work for the military. Almost no new furniture is created before 1945. The experiences from the war provided designers with knowledge about new materials and their function. Here, Alexander prioritized the special feeling of functionalism and materials that characterized the era. Inspiration was drawn from Charles and Ray Eames, Bruno Mathsson, Hans J. Wegner, and Gerrit T. Rietveld. The stool is made of clear-lacquered beech.

1910-1920. Handcrafted furniture now has to give way to industrial production and large-scale operations. In Alexander's eyes, Dutch Gerrit T. Rietveld is the period's absolute most important figure and source of inspiration for the decade's stool, which was made in clear-lacquered birch and oak. Rietveld's asymmetrical furniture representing the years 1910 to 1920 plays with shapes on different planes, and the avant-garde kinship with the artist group De Stijl is close at hand. Most famous from this period is his "red & blue chair".

1930-1940. The popularity of tubular steel furniture persists, while the technique of molded wood breaks through. The Finnish architect Alvar Aalto makes full use of these techniques and creates a series of fantastic furniture in plywood. The characteristically curved shapes of the era are clearly recognizable in Alexander's stool, which was built of tubular steel and strip steel.

1920-1930. This decade was strongly characterized by the German Bauhaus school and the new techniques where chairs, among other things, were built on a frame of tubular steel. The architects Marcel Breuer, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe develop numerous pieces of tubular steel furniture and at the same time spearhead functionalism, which now breaks through. Here lies the inspiration for Alexander's stool in simple shapes with bent tubular steel and plywood.

1950-1960. "Scandinavian Design" now becomes a concept. Mass production breaks through across all production stages, and the designers' work becomes the key to an increased pace of production and sales. The 1950s are characterized by natural and organic shapes. Furniture such as "The Ant", "The Swan", and "The Egg" designed by the Dane Arne Jacobsen are classics that are still sold in large numbers today. Molded wood is developed further and used on an increasingly large scale. Saarinen, Bertoia, Eames, Nelson, and Kjaerholm are among the great role models of the time.

Alexander has here tried to create an insect that, with its lightness and springiness, signals that it will soon take off. The wings are made of molded oak, the legs of tubular steel, and an upholstered cushion serves as the seat.

1960-1970. Man conquers space and the first steps on the moon are taken. Designers have never been so playful before. Now a style is born that in various forms still appeals today. Plastic breaks through, as does upholstered furniture in organic shapes. Among the major names are Verner Panton, Eero Aarnio, and Joe Cesare Colombo. The stool has a core of plywood and polyester and is upholstered in fabric.

MAISON | 91

Ten stools — ten eras

1970-1980. Alexander believes that this decade is difficult to define. Diversity is now greater than before and no direction can be called dominant. He himself jokingly calls the entire period "traditional space-memphis". Designers now also use the growing knowledge of ergonomics, and there is more focus on the interaction between human and work tools. Among the colors, earth tones dominate; the 1970s is the brown decade. Leather and hides become popular materials.

Designers such as Rud Thygesen, Johnny Sørensen, and Achille Castiglioni have inspired Alexander for this stool in chrome-plated strip steel and clear-lacquered wood.

1980-1990. Pastel-colored and dull, many think, but Alexander believes that this decade is a good source of inspiration. The Memphis Group opens the decade with colorful, humorous, and unconventional furniture in good postmodernist spirit.

A typical ideal piece of furniture was the kitchen chair in the form of a gigantic pink, brown, and white candy. Then a break with that tradition of thought occurs in the middle of the decade, and furniture in untreated materials breaks through. A thin steel sheet with sharp folds contrasting with a large soft polyester cushion is Alexander's interpretation of the 1980s. Ron Arad, Tom Dixon, and Jasper Morrison, among others, provided the inspiration.

1990-2000. The Japanese architect and philosopher Shigeru Ban inspired the 1990s stool. Shigeru Ban designed houses made of cardboard tubes that could be erected in a day.

They were not only inexpensive, built from simple materials, and easy to transport, they were also beautiful! These thoughts on design are also what Alexander considers typical of the 1990s. Environmental friendliness and care in material use. The stool consists of four parts assembled into a stable construction. The parts are made of plastic.

English translation of the original article. Text read from the scanned original; small transcription errors may occur.