Impossibly small and intricate—and often startlingly expensive—miniatures serve no practical function beyond the feat of their tiny, minutely detailed existence. Yet they remain pleasing objets d’art for professional collectors and dabblers alike, markets to which the Vitra Design Museum has been uniquely attuned. The museum is renowned for its iconic chair collection and offers a trip through seating history, from Michael Thonet to Arne Jacobsen and Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. For more than two decades Vitra has been producing replicas at exactly one-sixth of the original size so that connoisseurs can curate their own mini home seating displays. Among the models are Marcel Breuer’s Wassily Chair (top), designed in 1925, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West Chair (middle), first produced in 1946, and Grete Jalk’s 1963 GJ Bow Chair (bottom). TwitterFacebookPinterest This story is from Kinfolk Issue Twenty-Four Buy Now Related Stories Design Issue 51 John Pawson From the king of minimalism: “I find the essential and get the design down to a point where you can’t add or subtract from it.” Design Interiors Issue 51 Axel Vervoordt Inside the world of Axel Vervoordt. Design Issue 51 Inga Sempé “Minimalism is boring as hell, and on top of that, it’s preachy.” Design Issue 51 Halleroed Meet the giants of Swedish retail design. Design Issue 51 Andrew Trotter The architect and designer on renewing traditional architecture. Design Issue 51 Kim Lenschow The architect who wants to show you how your house works.
Design Issue 51 John Pawson From the king of minimalism: “I find the essential and get the design down to a point where you can’t add or subtract from it.”