smow blog compact Milan 2015 Special: Pilot Chair by Barber Osgerby for Knoll

Upon seeing Rui Alves’s Bridge armchair prototype at IMM Cologne 2015 we commented on the unfamiliar, and for us not instantly accessible, overproportioned upholstered seat and backrest…… Before realising in context of both the Pocket Chair by Jesper Junge and the Lenz Lounge Chair by Bartmann Berlin, Silvia Terhedebrügge & Hanne Willmann, that possibly Rui was just riding the Zeitgeist a lot better than us and that the overproportioned aesthetic had a contemporary relevance we were unaware of.

Since Cologne we’ve befriended the concept of the oversized backrest, fortunately: for the Pilot chair by Barber Osgerby for Knoll would tend to indicate that we should all get used to backrests as voluminous and unapologetic as an Edwardian wig.

A delightfully reduced, uncomplicated and unhurried object the Pilot chair is based around a simple T-shaped aluminium frame onto which backrest, seat, (optional) armrests and base are attached – the latter via an excellently conceived slanted bar construction which both bestows the chair a very pleasing and well proportioned cantilever optic and also allows for the very slightly feathered, and comfortable, sitting experience.

Much less satisfying however is the decision to clothe some of the chairs in clown garb…… but what you gonna do? Other than hope that was just a very poor joke from the Knoll marketing team and in future the Pilot chair will only appear in the understated, and appropriate, leather and textile versions.

Otherwise an excellent chair and an object which for us stole the show from the intended star of the Knoll Milan presentation, the OMA Tools for Life Counter.