Contemporary garden bench 1952

Solid Surfaceacrylicstainless steel

This simple design was the first piece of furniture created by Harry Bertoia for Knoll. Although the bench does not have the signature wire grid of his more recognizable 1952 collection, the welded wire base shows an early exploration of the material. Now available with outdoor-suitable base finishes and slats in Acrylic Stone or Teak. CONSTRUCTION Slats : In Teak or Acrylic stone. Structure : Welded stainless steel rods in white or black Rilsan. Characteristic of the early environment at Knoll, Hans and Florence never demanded that Bertoia design furniture, but instead encouraged him to explore whatever he liked. They simply asked that if he arrived at something interesting, to show them. Bertoia later explained the process: “I went around and discovered, quite soon, that I was not the man to do research. My feeling was that had to come from an inward direction. I began to rely once more on my own body. I began to think in terms of what I would like as a chair. It started very slowly…I came into rod or wire, whether bent of straight. I seemed to find myself at home. It was logical to make an attempt utilising the wire. "Once more, I went through the procedure of positioning, considering the possibility of shapes, then relating, of course, what the wire itself could be, what shapes it might take, whether there were any tools to do it with. There are many aspects of the same things coming into one’s mind, but the very first thing was whether a shape would come up that would begin to serve as a chair, sitting on it, etc.