Chairs: The Stoelen Collectie Delft

The Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment has a diverse chair collection: 'The Stoelen Collectie Delft'.

The collection narrowly missed destruction in the faculty fire of 2008. Fortunately it was kept in a closed depot in a lower part of the old building, so it was undamaged. When the faculty moved to their current location, initially it wasn't possible to display the collection. However, in 2010, a donation from the Dutch Sofa Foundation, an organisation which supports Dutch furniture designers, allowed the collection to be displayed again. The display can be found on the first floor, on the same corridor as the library.

The collection is arranged by construction materials and, within the materials, arranged by how they work or method of construction. Famous architect and designers are grouped together as well. One of the most interesting chairs in the collection is a bright orange Garden Egg chair; an early prototype of designer Peter Ghyczy’s acclaimed 1968 design. Some of the key chairs in the collection were designed by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, Dutch furniture designer and architect from the early 19th century. The Rietveld chairs, along with some 17th century chairs and more recent prototypes are part of the “secure collection”, which can only be viewed upon request.

Charlotte van Wijk  (researcher, curator & in-charge of the collection): “Besides the permanent exhibition, the chair collection is involved in exhibitions in museums through loans, and we organise conferences accessible to students and others. We sometimes have students from the department of furniture design, Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten Den Haag who study our chairs for one of their projects. We also make the chairs available to researchers in the field of design history or restoration.”

Photos on Flickr

Sources:

 

Exhibitions with 'The Stoelen Collectie Delft'

COLLABORATION WITH THE LIBRARY

Pick a chair and compare | 2015

Exhibition at the Library

We are all chairs. Pretty obvious, we know. But did you ever take time to really look at us?

Normally we live in an archive at the Faculty of Architecture, together with a big variety of other chairs.

Together we illustrate the history of chair design, from traditional wood craft production, through bent wood, plastics, and metals. During our active lives, we were used to being complimented and criticized, but lately we have missed the dialogue with our former users.

Photos of the exhibition on Flickr

Chairs, Tables, Lamps and Sets. Students at work! | 2016

Double exhibition

2/8 - 2/9/2016 in TU Delft Library
6/9 - 9/10/2016 in Prinsenkwartier Delft

The Faculty of Architecture has a fabulous and extensive collection of chairs. To get them out of their shelves and into education, the Chair History of Architecture and Urban Planning went looking for partners within design education, and found them in the Chairs of Form & Modelling Studies and of Architecture of the Interior.

During past semesters in 2016, three design courses challenged students to start “a dialogue with a Chair” and - inspired by that research- make a new design for a Lamp, Table or Set. This initiative aimed at promoting design through collections. And it led to remarkable results!

The Prinsenkwartier wants to be a meeting place for design, technology and art. It shares the building among others with technology development point TOP and city lab Maakbaar. The exhibition space is on the first floor and is free of charge. Project director José Zeldenthuis says: "Art and technology have a lot to do with each other. We are looking for overlap and interfaces between them. This exhibition fits perfectly with that."

Delta article: En nu de stad in

Photos of the exhibitions on Flickr

Chairs, Tables and Lamps 2, Students at work! | 2017

The Faculty of Architecture has a fabulous and extensive collection of chairs. To get them into education, the Chair of History of Architecture and Urban Planning went looking for partners within design education, and found them in the Chairs of Form & Modelling Studies.

For the second time - during the academic year 2016-2017- several design courses challenged students to start “a dialog with a chair” and – inspired by that research – make a new design for a Lamp or a Table. After the successful summer exhibition in 2016, we will have “part two” this summer of 2017.

Portraits of chairs by artist Herman Kuypers were a part of the exhibition: www.hermankuypers.nl
Films and books (TU Delft Library collection) about: Eames, Ponti, Jacobsen, Ghyczy, Berkovich. Selected by Ad Bercht and Marion Vredeling.

Photos of the exhibition and the opening on Flickr

Articles:

Colofon:

  • Ad Bercht (Information Specialist, TUD Library)
  • Herman Kuypers (artist)
  • Marion Vredeling (Program-manager TUD Library)
  • Charlotte van Wijk (Management Chairs Collection - History of Architecture and Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture TU Delft)
  • Tessa Wijtman (Faculty of Architecture TU Delft -ACaP)
  • José Zeldenthuis (Project Director Prinsenkwartier Delft)
  • Marion van Putten (PR)
  • Jan van der Heul (photos)

Teaching Lab Exhibition Object-Based Learning | 2018

Teaching with Heritage #3

Every semester, an educator is invited to select a series of objects from TU Delft Library’s Special Collections for this display. In a short film, he or she reflects on the role heritage plays (or could play) in teaching. In today’s increasingly digitised learning environments, the use of physical collections can offer a valuable change of scene. This display was curated by Charlotte van Wijk, a researcher at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment and curator of the faculty’s Chair Collection.

Source: TU Delft website