Wednesday, 1 March 2006 | Levent OZLER

Philippe Starck Conceives a New Icon For Emeco

Emeco, the manufacturer of the world famous, all aluminum 1006 Navy Chair, will launch a new design by Philippe Starck at the Milan Furniture Fair in April. Named Icon, the new design is a super-minimal rendering of Starck's ideal chair.

A new chair designed by Philppe Starck for Emeco

Emeco, the Aluminum Chair Company, will launch a new design by the internationally renowned architect, Philippe Starck, at Milan's 2006 Salone Internazionale del Mobile this April. Named Icon, the new design is a distillation of Mr. Starck's ideas, and ideals. Hand made of 100% aluminum, the new stacking chairs and stools have an estimated lifespan of 150 years and a lifetime guarantee.

"My idea for the new Emeco chair was to design nothing, just transmit the phenomenon of Emeco. The new design is balanced, minimal and coherent; there is serenity. When I close my eyes and think of a chair, I think of this chair -- it is an Icon," said Mr. Starck.

Gregg Buchbinder, Emeco's Chairman recalls, "Working with Starck is like making love. I don't know why it feels so good or works so well, I just follow my heart. It's marriage of craft and intuition. Starck and Emeco have a wonderful love affair."

"I use Emeco chairs in many projects and have always had many ideas I wanted to try with Emeco," said Mr. Starck. "Hermes is to leather as Emeco is to aluminum -- an incredible material I love. Emeco has a heritage of craftsmanship. Working with Gregg has allowed me to use a recycled material and transform it into something that never needs to be discarded. A tireless and unbreakable chair to use and enjoy for a lifetime. It is a chair you never own, you just use it for a while until it is the next persons turn. A great chair never should have to be recycled. This is good consideration of nature and mankind."

Icon will be available as a stacking chair and barstool in hand brushed and hand polished aluminum finishes. Retail prices will start at US$ 350. Icon is built at the historic factory in Hanover, Pennsylvania, using Emeco's proprietary 77-Step Process -- unchanged since 1944. With a content of 80% recycled aluminum, Icon meets LEED criteria for an environmentally sound product.

"An honest, enthusiastic citizen of today's world, Philippe Starck considers it his duty to share with us his subversive vision of a better world which is his alone and yet which fits up like a glove. The world's museums are unerring. Paris, New York, Munich, London, Chicago, Kyoto, Barcelona - all exhibit his work as that of a master. Prizes and awards are showered on him: designer of the year, Grand Prix for Industrial Design, the Oscar for Design, Officier des Arts et des Lettres, and many more. Always and everywhere, he seems to understand better than any other our dreams, our desires, our needs, and our responsibility to the future, as well the overriding need to respect his fellow citizens by making his work a political and a civic act," writes Ed Mae Cooper.

Emeco was founded in 1944 to make all-aluminum chairs for the US Navy. Mr. Buchbinder purchased the company in 1998 and began a friendship and association with Mr. Starck, creating a series of products that united Emeco's historic manufacturing capabilities with Mr. Starck's classic designs for a new century. In 2000, Mr. Starck's Hudson chair for Emeco won the GOOD DESIGN Award and was inducted into the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2004, Emeco collaborated with the American architect Frank Gehry on Superlight, a chair that utilizes aluminum's ability to be both strong and flexible. Mr. Gehry's chair won another GOOD DESIGN award in 2004 and was included in collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Pinakothek der Modern in Munich. Most recently, Emeco worked with BMW DesignworksUSA to re-interpret a long-lost Emeco chair from 1951 for the contemporary market.

Emeco has made over 1,000,000 Navy chairs since 1944, and now sells its all-aluminum furniture in 50 countries. Emeco will present Icon by Starck at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan at Emeco's stand, C14 in Pavilion 12, and at the ICFF in New York.

Emeco: http://www.dexigner.com/directory/detail/4230/