Kontrapunkt Recliner | By Neisako
The design of the Kontrapunkt armchair and chaise lounge transformer explores the possibility of creating an alternative to the standard bulky recliner armchair typology. The goal was to integrate the armchair and chaise lounge into one compact visually light object. The very name Kontrapunkt (counterpoint) means "two opposite points", and comes from music, where it denotes a method of composing two parallel melodic lines into one harmonious whole. This was achieved by using the armrests as part of an innovative mechanism that holds the leg pad extension and tilts the backrest into the proper position. The design is minimal and lays the product’s structural parts bare, without compromising its aesthetic. Comfort is achieved through an ergonomic shape and material elasticity, particularly through different versions of the product’s skin, upholstered in fabric or leather. The change of skins transforms its character, making it suitable for various situations of interior use. The ultimate experience of comfort can be additionally moderated through layers of feather and with the regulation of the height of the head cushion.
Dimensions
- 35.5"d | 27.1"w | 39.7"h | 15.7"sh
Technical Info
- Base steel or inox tube Ø 25 mm + powder coating
- Suspension elastic webbing
- Seat & backrest feather
- Cushion feather
- Upholstery leather
Neisako
Moritz Böttcher and Sören Henssler founded their Berlin-based design studio in 2007. In 2013 the designer Nikolaus Kayser joined the team. Since 2014 the trio is working under the studio name Böttcher Henssler Kayser in the fields of consumer product, furniture, and lighting design with companies such as ANTA, Böwer, Mater, Normann Copenhagen, Scantex, Schönbuch, Vertigo Bird and Zero. The designers were honored with a number of distinctions like iF and red dot design awards, the prestigious Red Dot „best of the best“ and the Interior Innovation Award 2015 for their sofa Seam produced by Prostoria.
Prostoria
We tend to perceive furniture as something abstract, created on designers’ desks and then produced, branded and placed on the market by companies with different statuses and reputations. In fact, relations inside the contemporary globalized furniture industry are becoming more and more fragmented with less and less opportunity for complete dedication to synergies and collaborations… Prostoria, as a young company whose catalogue already comprises some new icons such as the Polygon armchair and the Revolve transformable sofa, stands as an example of a different and more traditional approach based on the evolution from the local factuality and logical clustering of all actors involved in the production process.
Rapid development of Prostoria, formerly known as Kvadra, a company which has come a long way, from “starting from zero” to positioning itself as the leader and promoter of new ideas in only a few years time, is a story about the reintroduction of continuity both in Croatia and Central Europe, a region with vital but insufficiently recognized design scene and remarkable tradition and knowledge of the furniture industry. Those elements served as latent potentials that provided grounds for continuation and had to be activated.
Since the beginning, Prostoria has been developing an integrative approach, functioning as a collaboration platform that nourishes and stimulates continuous exchange of knowledge and experience between all the actors participating in the production of furniture. A dynamic workshop ambience has been created offering opportunities mainly to young designers to explore their ideas in excellent conditions and bring them to the highest level of design, functionality and technological artisanship. Many products have been developed over longer periods of time surpassing a number of iterations until reaching their final form, which would be impossible without the adequate support combining the contemporary technology and meticulous craftsmanship and handwork of the highest quality. Predominantly local materials are used, especially solid wood, and most of the production takes place within the company itself or in collaboration with local cooperatives.
While the company’s catalogue also offers furniture based on tested models, Prostoria shows strategic and even passionate dedication to research-based design, convinced that authenticity has its place on the market but presents a special challenge in the times when it seems almost impossible to create truly innovative and fresh concepts. For that reason, Prostoria’s social responsibility and specific position have to be observed as a contribution to the evolution of design and readiness to take the risk in order to reach new values for the benefit of users and the culture. Thus, Prostoria stands as a project inside of which designers grow together with the company on the grounds of mutual trust and shared goals.
