Reviving Design Icons – Cultivated by Cult
Running for two days during Sydney Design Week, Cult’s award-winning sustainability initiative, Cultivated, offers an insight into the restoration of Fritz Hansen Series 7 chairs. With the exhibition, Reviving Design Icons, visitors are afforded a rare behind-the-scenes look at the immersive process of design restoration.
In collaboration with Powerhouse and Fritz Hansen, Cultivated’s Reviving Design Icons will be exhibited at the Powerhouse workshop from 17 – 18 September. Reviving the Fritz Hansen Series 7 chairs by Arne Jacobsen for live audiences, craftspeople from Cultivated will breathe new life into chairs from the museum, some of which date back to the 1960s. Experienced through daily guided demonstrations, visitors see first-hand the intricate steps required to preserve furniture for the future.
Created in 1955 for the Royal SAS Hotel in Copenhagen, the Fritz Hansen Series 7 chair, made of nine layers of pressure moulded wood veneer, is widely known for its shape, strength and flexibility. To visitors of Powerhouse, the chair has been a constant feature throughout the museum since its opening. For Reviving Design Icons, a selection of 10 Series 7 chairs from various spaces throughout the museum, including the Ken Done restaurant and the Ultimo administration office, will undergo stripping, sandblasting, hand-waxing and repainting to demonstrate the idea of circular economy in action.
Believing in the quality and longevity of design, Cultivated endeavours to bring attention to how restoring, recycling or reinvigorating furniture helps not only to cultivate design but to sustain it. With the chance to watch and learn how the restoration process works, visitors to the exhibition at Powerhouse will leave with a new level of insight into how a design icon can live on well into the future.
