питер Опсвик

Garden Chair

source: homechunk

Originally designed in the 1980s, the Garden Chair by Norwegian furniture designer Peter Opsvik was relaunched at the Designers Saturday in Oslo in September last year. Showcased at the London Design Festival 2012, the Garden Chair enjoys an artistic and playful appearance, and makes seating a fun thing. The original design of the chair was made to stimulate sympathy for freer use of the body. Opsvik has won many accolades for his unique sculptural seating units. The unusually inviting Garden Chair is available through Norwegian company Rybo. While I’m not sure what it would feel like to sit on the Garden Chair, but Peter Opsvik’s creative approach to seating is worth a round of applause.
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source: nordicdesign

Школьные парты и офисные кресла для компании Håg, подставка под ноги для парикмахеров и раскладной стул Safari (насколько практичный, настолько же красивый), прототип автомобиля Butterfly, работающего на солнечной энергии, над которым Опсвик трудился более 10 лет, и детская площадка, созданная им совместно с Terje Ekstrǿm — эти предметы демонстрируют способность дизайнера отзываться на потребность людей в удобных и эстетически привлекательных вещах для ежедневного использования.
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source: onofficemagazine

Opsvik is on a mission to rethink the way in which we sit. The designer, who will be 70 next year, is one of the world’s leading developers of work chairs, with numerous domestic and international awards to his name. Although he has never courted the limelight much himself, many of his products will be familiar: the Tripp Trapp child’s stool, for example, designed in 1972, is still manufactured by Stokke and, according to Opsvik, more than six million have been sold. The Capisco, or “saddle” chair, designed for Håg in 1984, is still responsible for making Scandinavian offices look fresh, creative and progressive almost 25 years on. The Balans, known by many as “that strange chair you kneel on which is really good for your posture or something”, was devised in 1979 by Opsvik for Stokke, and is now produced by Varier. As a result, Opsvik’s designs have never been cool per se, which may be why you will rarely see his name in the pages of Elle Deco or Wallpaper. Invariably what they are, however, is distinctive and relentlessly entertaining to use. Opsvik’s designs are often immediately recognisable: the idea behind most of the seats he has designed for adults is that they should encourage the user to move. Springs are frequently incorporated, as are rockers, while others swing suspended on strings. Does Opsvik feel that he has had much influence on the furniture design industry over the years? Surprisingly little, he says. “Not as far as physical products are concerned, anyway. But maybe the message has changed. The communications material from the manufacturers of work chairs from Europe and US now often promotes theories that, as human beings are not made to sit in one posture, “the solution is movement and variation while sitting” – or something in that vein. Even Vitra – a company famous for making visually excellent chairs – has recently been running ads in magazines showing 30 different body postures, instead of promoting a chair’s visual form. “My manufacturers were alone with this kind of ergonomic message for many years,” says Opsvik. The Capisco chairs, incidentally, were the first work chairs in which the seat and backrest could tilt freely without use of handles or locking mechanisms.

Having been working on new solutions to the same tune for several decades, Opsvik is something of an expert in posture and movements that are necessary for different people of different ages and in different situations. One thing always drives the design, however. “Becoming aware of the need or possibility of improvement may, in many cases, be the most valuable moment in the design process,” he says. “Finding the solutions that can meet this need is often more of an analytical process.” He is currently engaged in the redesign of a school desk concept (the chair and table built together as one piece of furniture), which he originally conceived in the 1970s.

Opsvik’s perseverance is inspiring, but how does he define his own success? “One day, success can be the message about one of my alternative chairs enabling a person to work full time after a period with back problems,” he says. “The next day, I may reflect on the increasing number of new chairs on the market that are all trying to lift children of different sizes up to the adult table (some of them are copies). The Tripp Trapp must have been an answer to a need when, in 1972, it became the first ‘high chair’ that can grow with the child.”
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source: atcasacorriereit

Personalità di spicco del design nordico, con le sue sedute ergonomiche ha rivoluzionato il modo di sedersi. Norvegese, frequenta prima il Bergen College, poi si diploma nel ’64 allo State College of Applied Art di Oslo, dove apre il suo studio e dove tuttora lavora. Nella lunga carriera ha disegnato per moltissimi marchi, realizzando pezzi cult tuttora in produzione: l’originale poltrona Garden per Rybo, Capisco, H04, H05, Conventio per Hag, tutti i modelli di sedie Balans per Varier, il seggiolone Tripp Trapp per Stokke, per citare i più conosciuti. Impressionante la lista dei premi ricevuti in carriera e le mostre che lo vedono protagonista, tra cui l’omaggio tributato dal Moma NY alla celebre Tripp Trapp nel 2012. Personalità eclettica, è anche musicista jazz e scrittore: nel suo libro Rethinking Sitting del 2009 illustra le sue famose sedie
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source: snlno

Peter Opsvik, norsk interiørarkitekt og møbeldesigner. Utdannet ved kunsthåndverksskolene i Bergen og Oslo. 1965–70 var han tilknyttet Tandbergs Radiofabrikk som designer. Fra 1970 har han arbeidet som frilans møbeltegner, og har særlig konsentrert seg om forholdet mellom kropp og stol, som f.eks. i barnestolen Tripp-Trapp (1973) og Balans Variabel (1979, i samarbeid med Svein A. Gusrud og Oddvin Rykken). Han har senere tegnet flere modeller med utgangspunkt i Balans-prinsippet. Opsvik har deltatt på en rekke utstillinger i inn- og utland og har mottatt flere utmerkelser, bl.a. årets møbel i 1984 og 1986, Jacob-prisen og Klassikerprisen i 1986.