Torbjørn Anderssen and Espen Voll

2024-04-15 10:44:02

Torbjørn Anderssen and Espen Voll, designers from Oslo, are as different as duos often are. Anderssen is extroverted, speaks quickly and is easily distracted. Full is calmer, waits, speaks slowly, carefully. Apparently a fruitful combination, as the two have been omnipresent in recent years with their furniture designs for Nordic brands such as Audo, Muuto, Røros and Takt. We met them for an interview in Copenhagen, where they presented their new outdoor furniture collection Ville for &Tradition.

Mr. Anderssen, Mr. Voll, with the Ville collection for &Tradition you have designed furniture for the terrace and garden for the first time. What are the differences compared to indoor furniture?

Torbjørn Anderssen: The expectations are different. For example, you expect the furniture to be more robust and able to withstand harsh climates. Weight is another consideration: we usually work to make things as light as possible. It was different here, we made them heavier so they wouldn’t be blown away by the wind. And they should be colors and materials that go well with leaves, grass, soil and stones.

Espen Voll: There is a change in consumer trends. 15 years ago, people still went to a garden center to buy outdoor furniture – at least in Norway. Now there are large stores in city centers that sell outdoor furniture. There is a greater need for people to express their identity through the furniture outside. Your own home should be reflected in the garden.

Opposite duo: Norwegians Torbjørn Anderssen (left) and Espen Voll have designed a collection of outdoor furniture for the first time.Pursue

You worked on the collection for three and a half years. Why did it take so long?

Torbjørn Anderssen: We tried different materials. We first used elastic straps for the seat of the chair. But they didn’t provide enough support in some places, so we switched to rigid straps. But then we had to work more on the ergonomics so that the seat fits the body well.

Espen Voll: When manufacturers present a product today, it is finished. You can buy it on the day it is released. Things used to be different; manufacturers liked to test their products on the market. But if you present a prototype and it takes two more years to develop, people lose interest.

So most of the development work went into the chair of the collection?

Espen Voll: We really tried a lot of combinations of steel frame and straps on the chair. We wanted to get the maximum comfort out of the materials.

How comfortable should the chair actually be?

Torbjørn Anderssen: We wanted to create a chair that you could sit on comfortably for an entire evening. Not like a coffee house chair that you just sit on but don’t lean on.

Many manufacturers promise that you can leave their products outside all year round. Tables and chairs do not have to be put away in bad weather. Is that really a good idea?

Both: No, that’s not a good idea. Don’t do that!

Espen Voll: You can also leave your car outside all year round. But it’s certainly better to park it in a garage. There is always wear and tear. Even a good suit is hung in a bag in the closet. There are of course materials that acquire a patina, wood for example. But you have to take care of it yourself, you have to maintain it. It’s not like you put a wooden piece of furniture in your backyard and wait for it to get a nice patina.

“A chair you can sit on comfortably for an entire evening.”Pursue

They say the Ville collection is inspired by Danish design. What do you mean by that?

Torbjørn Anderssen: It’s about the structure of the chair, it is clearly visible which part is supporting and which is being supported.

Espen Voll: A reference is the Danish designer Poul Kjærholm. The stable base with a floating seat on top is something he often did in his designs.

How important is design history to you?

Torbjørn Anderssen: As a young designer, you try to avoid historical references at all costs. Young designers sometimes do new things for the sake of new things. For several years we have recognized the importance of history and tried to build on it. That doesn’t mean we don’t strive for something new. Otherwise, what would be the point of our work? We are not afraid of historical references. And try to move forward at the same time.

The constant pursuit of something new can become a problem in design, keyword sustainability. What could be novel about a design that makes it worth producing?

Torbjørn Anderssen: It can be the shape, it can be color and pattern. It can be the way of manufacturing or the use of a material. With our other current project for &Tradition, the Allwood chair, it was important to us to make a stackable, comfortable chair made entirely of wood, hence the name. Not that a chair like this hasn’t already been made. But it seemed fitting to develop it now. It’s definitely a good question, we ask ourselves that all the time. Relevance is perhaps a better term than novelty. What is relevant at the moment? A big trend is to use used furniture instead of new furniture. This makes the old relevant.

What would be the relevance of the Allwood chair?

Torbjørn Anderssen: It is a very stable chair. It has passed all stress tests for furniture in intensive use. It is lightweight and made entirely from sustainably grown European wood.

Espen Voll: It contains no metal parts.

Torbjørn Anderssen: If you have to dispose of it at some point, perhaps in 100 years, it can be treated as a unit because it only consists of one material. This is called monomaterial – an important property.