Low Pad / 1999
— A moulded-leather or fabric upholstered lounge chair with a satin stainless-steel base.
— Low Pad began with a thought to do a comfortable low chair with as little volume as possible. I have always admired Poul Kjaerholm’s PK22 chair for its reduction of materials and the elegance of its concept, but having lived with it for a few years I was aware that an element of comfort was missing. The prototypes of our first drawings were not particularly exciting, consisting of more or less traditional upholstery on a wire frame base. After some refinement I still wasn’t sure it really had anything going for it, but on my way back to London I noticed the profile of an airport bench, and that, combined with a memory of having seen some moulded leather forms, gave me the concept. After that it was easy. Cappellini found a company making car seats who could press leather and most kinds of fabric; I played around with various shapes for the back; and finally a plywood panel was moulded to the required profile, cut to shape and the upholstery stitched over it. The design owes much to Cappellini’s upholstery skills, because if it hadn’t been done perfectly, it wouldn’t have been any good at all.
Extract from Everything But the Walls by Jasper Morrison (Lars Müller Publishers, 2006)
Produced by Cappellini, Italy
