Reversible chairs. Designer Ineke Hansová presents the first Dutch foldable chair in the Czech Republic
This year's Designblok festival is dedicating the entire exhibition to the main guest, the star of contemporary Dutch design, Ineke Hansová. The fifty-six-year-old designer of furniture, textiles, design patterns and luxury carpets is presenting the Circuform brand and the Rex project - the first ever Dutch backed-up chair - at this year's exhibition.
The Circuform brand breathes a second life into industrially designed furniture. At this year's Designblok, they are presenting the Rex chair, which was designed in its original form more than ten years ago. Today, however, it is made from different materials (for example, parts of office chairs, nets used for fishing or carpets). The purchase price of a chair without armrests is around twohundred and fifty euros, with armrests it is about one thousand crowns more expensive. It is a sustainable and fully recyclable chair that can be returned after a while for twenty euros, i.e. almost five hundred crowns. Old used-up chairs are returned to deposit stations, which have been operating abroad for the third year and whose number is still increasing.
The chair is not thrown away, but returned
The development of this first ever Dutch backup chair supports a different philosophy of consumption, which is currently very close to the young generation. After repeated use, the chair is not thrown away, but returned. Returned chairs are inspected, cleaned, repaired and resold. Broken chairs are taken apart and crushed into material for new production. They are therefore made of material that is fully recyclable.
Italy became the most suitable place for the production of chairs, and they are then transported to the Netherlands by rail. Being a predominantly plastic and easy-to-maintain chair, Rex is suitable for dining rooms, kitchens and lecture halls, offices, hospitals, schools and restaurants.
The seat and flexible backrest can be changed according to the needs of a particular individual if necessary. Chairs can be stacked and placed in rows with or without armrests.
Retractable chairs have already been purchased by various museums such as the Vitra Design Museum, Museum Boijmans Rotterdam and the Design Museum in Ghent. They have also won a whole host of design awards. The brand is currently nominated for the Green Product Award 2023.