Indochine Armchair

Overview

Indochine is a swivel armchair by Charlotte Perriand, designed in 1943. The page describes it as the interpretation in wood of the Fauteuil tournant, her modern chair in tubular metal.

Construction

The page lists a solid walnut base, a poplar plywood seat panel and a fabric or leather upholstery. The product sheet gives a base in natural walnut or in ashwood stained black with a matt painted finish, a seat structure in poplar plywood, black plastic feet, cold-moulded flexible polyurethane foam, resin-bonded polyester padding with light velvet, and, for the cover, quilted fabric or leather.

Image source: Cassina — Indochine Armchair · © Cassina and the respective rights holders. Quoted to accompany INTEBEE's independent design commentary and research. · View official product page ↗ · Image use & copyright policy

Specifications

• Code 528: 61 cm wide, 56 cm deep, 72 cm high
• Bases: natural walnut, or ashwood stained black
• Upholstery: 8 fabric ranges and 5 leather ranges, 184 colours

From metal to wood

The sheet describes Indochine as a re-working of the 7 Fauteuil tournant, whose frame was in tubular metal and was the work of Perriand in 1927. That chair was later shown with other furniture she co-designed with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret at the 1929 Salon d'Automne in Paris.

Made in Vietnam in 1943

According to the sheet, the original design was executed in Vietnam in 1943 with the materials and craft techniques available in wartime. The first model had three legs and a fourth was added later, which the sheet reads as the designer's flexible and resourceful approach to materials and places of production. Cassina re-issued the chair "in the full respect of the original design" with a solid wood base.