B-Side: Vegetal

We have the bad habit of looking to the back side of objects. Sometimes we discover complete different languages, or hidden details that tell more about the product, and sometimes they happen to be even more interesting than the official face; no matter what we find is always worth the time.

spotd.it

It took four long years for Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec and Vitra to develop the production version of the Vegetal chair; reproducing in plastic the random organical beauty of leaves and branches, the balanced asymmetry of nature and its irregular geometries was a huge challenge for the limited boundaries of serial production.

The result is an interesting piece of furniture that seems to have lost something important in its way to life; as Alessandro Mendini puts it, moulds have a soul themselves and the imprint of the mould seems to be too strong in the Vegetal chair, specially in the top surface of the chair that appears stiff and lifeless.

We found the b-side of the piece much more interesting, the ribbing that assures structural rigidity enhances the natural-like shapes, and the evident asymmetry of the legs and the interlocking branches enrich its intricate naturalesque morphology, successfully contrasting the artificial impress of the gas injected plastic.