Jens

Overview

Jens (2017, Antonio Citterio) is presented by B&B Italia as a collection that takes in chairs with or without armrests and stools. It combines a typical 1950s style with a contemporary reading of classical Chinese chairs.

Construction

• Frame: solid wood, a five-axis frame in a variety of wood finishes
• Seat: shaped polyurethane and veneered multi-layered wood panel; cellulose rope interlacing on SJ61PA and SJ41PA
• Cover: thick leather
• Ferrules and reinforcements: plastic material
• Versions: entirely in wood, wooden frame with a leather seat, wooden frame with thick leather seat and back, wooden frame with a seat in woven cellulose rope

Specifications

• SJ61PA: 61 cm (front view) × 56.5 cm (side view); height 76.5 cm (labelled h. on the US shop item)

A memory chair

Citterio describes the chair as "A memory chair that takes you back to the 1950’s, made by numeric control machines." The wooden structure works on five axes and is combined with visible, seamless leather that the structure supports.

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

Turned and curved wood

The page presents the result as a rediscovery of the craft of turned and curved wood, interpreted for numerically controlled machines. Its references run from nineteenth-century Shaker chairs to 1950s chairs and back to memories of the Ming dynasty.