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Pedro Silva Dias's slender, flexible Alcatifa chair provides sheer comfort.
By Paul Makovsky
February 2002
Pedro Silva Dias (b. 1963) graduated with a degree in product design
from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon in 1987. He
went on to teach design at the Technical University in Lisbon, the
University of Oporto, and, since 1996, the University of Lisbon. Since
1987 Dias's work has been exhibited in Portugal and abroad. He is
keeping busy in all areas of design, including creating a new public
telephone for Portugal Telecom and working as the signage programmer for
the Lisbon airport.
Experimentadesign is a biannual exposition in Lisbon that showcases the
work of Portuguese and international designers. This year's festivities,
held at different venues in and around the historic city, included a
retrospective of the work of industrial-design master Dieter Rams; Space
Invaders, an exhibition of emerging British architecture; and Design
Operandi, a show of never-before-seen pieces by some of Portugal's
leading industrial designers. I talked to Portuguese designer Pedro
Silva Dias about his Alcatifa chair, which was on display at
Experimentadesign and was released by Altamira this month.
The name we started to call the chair was "Alcatifa"--"carpet"
in Portuguese--because that was the first material to cover the seat.
I chose it thinking that it corresponds to the concept: a bit of floor
that elevates, folds, and provides a seat. I liked the idea that the chair
is like a carpet: something domestic and near the floor.
The chair is made of a stainless-steel bar, a stainless-steel base, and
an aluminum plate covered by a layer of felt or industrial carpet, which
is available in different colors and finishes.
The main problem was the flexibility of the materials and a suitable
level of comfort. The first model was too layered, so everything was
redesigned. I was trying to find a compromise between comfort and
appearance, so that when it is empty it should never look too straight,
which would make it uncomfortable looking.
Because the forms of the parts should be in plan, I had to think of the
final three-dimensional shape, which is curved. It was drawn in plan and
curved or it was calculated, folded, and planned. This was a slow
process, because I was looking for harmonious forms in both cases. I
wanted you to be reminded of the image of its components in plan.
I wanted to make a chair that you could rest in for a long period but
was not upholstered. I started with the idea of designing something
without volume--something as thin as possible--and used laminas (thin
sheets or layers). I didn't want anything to exceed an 8mm thickness.
Comfort would be achieved through the flexibility of the chair.
It's a soft chair because it's flexible, even though it's made of hard
components. The use of laminar materials that are folded or calendered
(pressed through rollers) allows for a low-cost production of a
prototype or a limited production. There's no need for an investment in
costly molds at the early stages of design.
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