CGD

The Czech furniture producer TON has a long tradition of combining the technology of manually bent wood with innovations and design. In 2022, the brand presented a collection that reminiscences the legendary design of chair and armchair A 811 and 811 by Josef Hoffman designed in 1930. The archive designs, not in production anymore, were updated in collaboration with the famous Swedish studio Claesson Koivisto Rune. The original design, which is over ninety years old, has been adapted to contemporary requirements of aesthetics, practicality, function and series production. The original inspiration is referenced in the name – 822 (and seems to reference the year of creation – 2022) – and in proportion principles. “The original A 811 and 811 designs are excellent examples of the early modernist movement, but they also clearly reference the heritage of romanticism of the 19th century. We decided to remove that feeling,” says a member of the designers’ trio, Mårten Claesson. He and his colleagues Eero Koivistem and Olou Rune often design architectural revitalisations, in which it is necessary to deal with the past creatively in order to make it a contribution to the present. This experience helped the designers to rework Hoffman’s design. The new part for the trio was to work with manually bent massive wood, something they hadn’t tried until then. It is worth admiration to see how well the designers have dealt with using just the right amount of historical elements, which in their rendition offer a perfectly contemporary feeling. An example for all: the inclusion of traditional round perforations of the seat and backrest, which give the collection a characteristic, instantly recognizable character with a pleasant hint of retro.

The 822 collection was originally designed as a limited series for an interior of a family-owned restaurant in the former Norwegian Stock Exchange, which the Claesson Koivisto Rune studio was working on. However, TON liked the idea so much, that they supported its further development and later presented it at last year’s Salone del Mobile fair in Milan. Eventually, the collaboration between a Czech traditional manufacturer and a Swedish design studio resulted in a full collection of series-produced seating furniture that includes a chair, a bar stool available in two heights, a stool, an armchair, and a lounge armchair, with armrests and without.

Eva Slunečková