Re-designing J46: furniture for our future selves

Adapting a design classic for future users.

During a twelve-day course, students from the master’s degree programme Furniture Design were asked to re-design a chair, Poul M. Volther’s J46, in response to demographic shifts and the changing expectations of tomorrow’s older generations.

The students explored the potential of the iconic Danish chair in collaboration with a group of elderly people. They took a novel approach that combines people-centered methods with the study of the chair’s tectonics and typological characteristics as a means by which to improve the quality of chair design, not only for an aging population, but for all people.

The prototypes highlight the effectiveness of this creative practice based on a critical dialogue between the past and the future, to explore the potential of design for improving the future of ourselves.