seating by patrick norguet

You can think of the Patrick Norguet’s Boson Chair as a 21st century version of the iconic Eames Lounge chair, both of which share a similar bucket-seat design. Of course, while Herman Miller’s chair was about plush, button-tufted luxury, the Boson (2005) is more about utilitarian elegance. Its bowl-like form is as much about sleek lines as it is about minimizing the use of material – in this case, a fiberglass shell tightly wrapped in wool/synthetic fabric.

Norguet’s What’s Up sofa looks like what you’d get if you cut a bath tub into quarters. Looking beyond the flat armrests and the shallow seats, it’s actually great for creating furniture on the fly. Available in two chiral forms (left and right), you can combine two along the short edges to form an 11 foot sofa; doing the same thing lengthwise creates an impromptu sofa bed.

Paris has historically been divided geographically, with Rive Droite (right bank) referring to the area north of the Seine river. Norguet chose this region (home to the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysèe) as inspiration for his own Rive Droite series, featuring foam padded seats with a stainless steel base. Available as a two-person sofa or swiveling armchair, each piece has an opening in the back near the base of the seat, and can be upholstered in either cotton or velvet. Patrick also offers wild, art deco-inspired patterns with overtones of Picasso which are surprisingly attractive.