Design 
13 December 2023
Design 
286

Werner Aisslinger

Prototype Soft Cell Lounger

Germany, 1998
polyurethane gel pads, lacquered epoxy resin, lacquered steel 29½ h × 24¼ w × 56 l in (75 × 62 × 142 cm)
estimate: $8,000–10,000
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Printed manufacturer's mark to underside ‘Soft Cell Werner Aisslinger’.
provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner
exhibited: Salone del Mobile, Milan, 1998
literature: Atlas of Furniture Design, Vitra Design Museum, ppg. 758-759

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Soft Cell Furniture

Pushing the Boundaries of Design

Inspiration struck for German designer Werner Aisslinger when he viewed a flexible, translucent gel bicycle seat at the MoMA Mutant Materials exhibition in 1995. Combining the idea of a gel-like padding material and the name of the eponymous 1980s pop music group, he conceived of the Soft Cell furniture series and worked with Italian medical engineering company Royal Medica to develop polyurethane gel pads using the same materials employed on surgical tables. Aisslinger then applied a similar technique to high-tech sports shoes to integrate the gel pads into chairs and stools by gluing them into a honeycombed, bent frame structure made of epoxy resin. Soft Cell furniture made quite a stir when it debuted at the Salone del Mobile Milano in 1999, but was never commercially successful due, in large part, to the nature of the material, which yellowed over time. The present lot is one of only two of this particular form ever made, its companion being in the permanent collection of the Vitra Design Museum in Germany.

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