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Home arrow Design Story

Design Story – Transportable furniture design

The brilliant ideas do not have an age and in fact the chair (that was designed by the British Army at Roorkhee in India in 1890) has always been considered by our whole family an object "important" even if little or nothing was known, at that time, of its history. It was parhaps the case that the need to disassemble one for washing the dirty fabric made it clear that the technique with which it was built was very artisanal and then, with the experience that I had in many years, at Knoll International, I began to think how could be re-designed nowadays keeping intact the emotional impact of the original design which is - I believe - impressed in our soul..


       
In fact, when I started looking for the origins of this chair I came across photographs of explorers and hunters who were sitting comfortably in front of desert dunes. The logo of "Sahara Design" is a sand dune because it is the idea of long journeys of the caravans in the desert where a furniture which is easily transportable permits to cross it with some comfort.
 

   Cacciatore sulla sedia "Roorkhee" 

In fact, as mentioned at the beginning, it was an unknown "designer" of the 'British army in India who first found a way to hold together with canvas and leather straps a structure of wood pieces wedged together.    British Campaign Furniture

Then later this chair was used by British troops in South Africa in the Boer War and later on was used in safari in Africa by white hunters.

  roorkhee chair east africa 1927

Then in Europe was copied and used covered in leather and wood in many variations / color. The pictures here shows a model used in 1930 by the Swiss Army.

    swiss design safari colonial chair-b.jpg

Returning to the present day transportable furniture design  is a field in which are rediscovered inventions of furniture "demountable", made mainly in the '900, which often amaze by the ingenuity of their inventors. The chair NOMAD redesigned by Arch. Daniela Puppa and Franco Raggi is one of them and also this chair probably has a history that we still do not know.

 


        
Sahara Design wants to introduce these furniture transportable with a production of great quality but at the same time careful to be on the market with an offer attractively priced. In each collection are explained the main changes of these products compared to the models of the past while on the menu "assembly" are shown the instructions that allow step by step how to assemble these items without any problems.
Gabriele Sagramoso