The Sculpture of Seating: Studio Benkert

Benkert, a Bavaria-based family enterprise, has built its reputation primarily as a producer of outdoor furniture – furniture which is designed for the general public and must meet exacting demands. Company founder and owner Gerhard Benkert has now launched a new project, Studio Benkert, and is designing individual indoor seating sculptures that appeal to a very particular taste.

Studio Benkert’s idiosyncratic design isn’t for everybody. Benkert himself calls the furniture “chairs for the brave”. And yes, it takes some courage to place one of these chairs in one’s own living room. They aren’t mainstream furniture, but bold objects that grab one’s attention. Benkert designs all of the pieces himself – as he does for Benkert Bänke as well – and aims to create unique, authentic products for people with a strong sense of quality and an affinity for the extraordinary.

The new company currently offers three different series. The seating sculptures in the SW series suggest curved bands, with a dark surface that emphasises their plasticity. They are made of a high-performance wood fibre material distinguished by its sturdiness and longevity. The seating sculptures GB 51–59 also employ curved forms, but make a more forceful impression. These contoured pieces are lasered out of stainless steel and then formed, welded and polished by hand. The buyer can choose a powder-coated finish in either stainless steel or matt black.

Those with a preference for straight lines and sharp corners will feel more at home with the models GB 21–32. They too are made of stainless steel, but additionally feature perforated 2.5-millimetre sheeting that is likewise welded and polished by hand. The dark matt powder-coated surface brings out the sculptural forms especially effectively. The upholstered seating surfaces are covered with dark microfibre fabric, yielding a striking tactile contrast between the soft and hard surfaces.

All of these models make use of geometric forms and a play of light and shadows that recall the design vocabulary of the Swiss architect Mario Botta. This is hardly surprising – after all, in the 1990s, Benkert commissioned Botta to build the company headquarters, including offices and production facilities, in Königsberg. Benkert shares the aesthetic sensibility of the architect, whose designs, like Benkert’s, don’t cater to mainstream taste but seek kindred spirits drawn to the authentic and the exceptional.

The Benkert headquarters are laid out symmetrically, headed by an office building in the form of a broad half-cylinder faced in the red brick that is typical of Botta’s architecture. This connects with the two production halls, standing opposite one another, two thirds of their volume built into the slope for ecological reasons. “Our company building is a further expression of our product philosophy,” says Benkert. In addition to dealing responsibly with the environment, this means products that combine aesthetics and functionality.

Accordingly, the furniture is manufactured by the company itself using modern technology and meticulous manual work, on the basis of years of production experience at Benkert Bänke. Formed, welded and polished by hand, the premium individual pieces that result evince a very special quality. And the optimal comfort that they afford testifies to the fact that these extravagant seating sculptures are made not just to be looked at, but actually sat in.

© Architonic