Volume first, surface next
A chair can look substantial without being solid throughout. Ineke Hans's Fracture Furniture makes that distinction the basis of its construction: a very light polystyrene core gives the object volume, then a hardening cover wraps around it.1
The two materials have different jobs. The core offers a form to work over; the covering changes what that form can become. The studio's early account compares the wrapping material to the bandage used around a broken arm. It is an unexpectedly familiar analogy for a chair-making experiment.1
This helps explain why the surface deserves attention. It belongs to the making of the object, rather than arriving simply as decoration after the structure is finished.
Time out for an experiment
The first models appeared in 2006 at Mayday for Playday. Hans describes the exhibition as time away from commissions, giving the studio room to try materials uncommon in furniture. The experiments ranged across stools, tables, coatstands and different kinds of chair.1
The range matters. A technique was being explored through several everyday forms, each asking something different of the same basic relationship between core and cover. A seat makes the question immediate because its volume must also become somewhere for a person to sit.
An experiment becomes a selection
A separate studio account describes the selected Fracture Furniture collection of 2007. It specifies polystyrene inside, synthetic resin around it and a polyester surface, with Cappellini distributing the work. Armchair and stool forms brought the material investigation into a more focused group.2
The selected pieces were available in red, pink and black. Colour makes their volumes easy to notice, but the more surprising idea sits beneath that visible finish: the light interior and the harder outside are working together.2
The title offers a useful way back into the object. Think of wrapping as a making action, then look at the resulting chair. The thing that seems to finish the form is also part of what allows that form to become furniture.