All language subtitles for BBC.The.Genius.of.Design.4of5.Better.Living.through.Chemistry.XviD.AC3.MVGroup.org.eng

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Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:14,007 --> 00:00:17,238 A round movement is better than an up and down movement. 2 00:00:18,087 --> 00:00:19,520 AII right? 3 00:00:19,567 --> 00:00:24,038 These women have gathered for a ritual in Wimbledon. 4 00:00:25,287 --> 00:00:28,120 They're paying homage to a totemic object. 5 00:00:28,487 --> 00:00:30,557 It's a cIassic piece of Tupperware 6 00:00:30,607 --> 00:00:32,598 that has stood the test of time 7 00:00:32,647 --> 00:00:35,286 but it's had a tweak to bring it into the 21 st century. 8 00:00:35,327 --> 00:00:36,806 Fantastic! 9 00:00:37,687 --> 00:00:41,396 lt's one of the most durable designs of the 20th century. 10 00:00:42,287 --> 00:00:47,156 Oh, wow! Now, this is an oId piece of Tupperware. 11 00:00:47,207 --> 00:00:49,198 But it's not much celebrated... 12 00:00:49,887 --> 00:00:52,162 except by people trying to sell it to you. 13 00:00:53,247 --> 00:00:56,045 Most of that product, I think you can put on a tabIe 14 00:00:56,847 --> 00:01:00,442 and it wiII hoId its own with the best crystaI and the best china. 15 00:01:01,927 --> 00:01:05,966 lt if seems anachronistic that parties like these still take place, 16 00:01:06,487 --> 00:01:11,436 that's because most of us take designs like these so utterly for granted. 17 00:01:11,487 --> 00:01:15,116 We have the Iarge bowI, because it's much more practicaI. 18 00:01:15,167 --> 00:01:18,603 Not just what they do, but also what they're made from. 19 00:01:19,087 --> 00:01:22,238 It doesn't Iook dissimiIar to something we might chuck away, 20 00:01:22,287 --> 00:01:24,596 because pIastic's become so disposabIe. 21 00:01:24,647 --> 00:01:29,721 And it's hard to imagine this was once a reaIIy magicaI object 22 00:01:29,767 --> 00:01:34,238 that embodied the kind of aspirations of post-war cuIture. 23 00:01:34,287 --> 00:01:39,156 Now if anybody has a probIem with rice, this is great. 24 00:02:09,447 --> 00:02:11,438 At the end of the Second World War, 25 00:02:12,007 --> 00:02:14,965 one nation's economy was clearly the winner. 26 00:02:17,727 --> 00:02:20,161 The whoIe of the Iate '40s in America 27 00:02:20,207 --> 00:02:24,086 is about that shift from wartime production to consumer market, 28 00:02:24,127 --> 00:02:28,405 and designers were at the forefront of Ieading that new economy, 29 00:02:28,447 --> 00:02:30,199 that new consumer boom. 30 00:02:30,247 --> 00:02:34,320 One designer who harnessed this emerging mass market 31 00:02:34,367 --> 00:02:37,165 and the technological promise of plastic 32 00:02:37,207 --> 00:02:41,246 was Earl Silas Tupper- the inventor of Tupperware. 33 00:02:42,447 --> 00:02:46,645 PeopIe Iike EarI Tupper were aIIowed by pIastics companies 34 00:02:46,687 --> 00:02:49,884 to experiment with potentiaI new consumer types of goods, 35 00:02:49,927 --> 00:02:53,806 because aIthough they had, you know, 40 different types of pIastic, 36 00:02:53,927 --> 00:02:56,361 they didn't reaIIy know what it couId be used for. 37 00:02:56,407 --> 00:03:00,400 That is what makes someone Iike EarI Tupper a genius designer 38 00:03:00,687 --> 00:03:05,283 because his designs were based on the observations of everyday practice in Iife. 39 00:03:10,207 --> 00:03:12,960 There wasn't much of a market for Tupperware 40 00:03:13,007 --> 00:03:15,805 in a post-war Europe of rationing and famine. 41 00:03:19,407 --> 00:03:25,039 But even amidst the rubble of newly liberated Germany, engineer Max Braun declared.. 42 00:03:25,447 --> 00:03:27,722 ''We're going to make beautiful things. '' 43 00:03:29,567 --> 00:03:35,085 The firm he founded hired a young idealist who shared that mission - Dieter Rams. 44 00:03:36,127 --> 00:03:44,239 The onIy thing that we had in our mind was to cIean up the disturbed worId. 45 00:03:45,007 --> 00:03:49,000 Don't forget, everything was disturbed in Germany. 46 00:03:50,447 --> 00:03:52,085 Everything. 47 00:03:52,127 --> 00:04:00,080 So that was aIso something which was, for us, very important, 48 00:04:00,127 --> 00:04:02,118 to cIean up in a new way. 49 00:04:02,567 --> 00:04:07,038 There was a passionate desire through every waIk of their Iife 50 00:04:07,087 --> 00:04:09,681 to create a new and better worId, 51 00:04:09,727 --> 00:04:12,287 therefore, a gentIer worId as weII. 52 00:04:13,287 --> 00:04:15,881 It was a naturaI reaction to what had gone before. 53 00:04:21,047 --> 00:04:25,518 What this led to at Braun was a new approach to consumer electronics - 54 00:04:26,167 --> 00:04:31,719 rigorously logical designs where decoration was stripped back to a bare minimum. 55 00:04:46,967 --> 00:04:51,916 When this product first hit the market in 1 956, it was utterIy radicaI. 56 00:04:51,967 --> 00:04:55,642 Nothing Iike it had been seen before. 57 00:04:56,287 --> 00:04:59,962 CIear use of circIes for twisting diaIs, 58 00:05:00,087 --> 00:05:02,396 of rectanguIar buttons for press buttons 59 00:05:02,967 --> 00:05:07,677 with concave surfaces inviting the finger to push. 60 00:05:09,207 --> 00:05:12,643 The ceIebration of the object for its own right, 61 00:05:12,687 --> 00:05:16,885 rather than it being an object of which you needed to be embarrassed in your home 62 00:05:16,927 --> 00:05:19,441 and pushed into the background. 63 00:05:27,927 --> 00:05:30,157 The instant clarity of Dieter's designs 64 00:05:30,207 --> 00:05:34,883 clearly obeys the modernist mantra that form should follow function. 65 00:05:38,047 --> 00:05:40,436 After years of propaganda and lies, 66 00:05:41,047 --> 00:05:44,960 the integrity of these designs was more than just pleasing to the eye. 67 00:05:48,007 --> 00:05:52,842 Thinking about new designs in a cIear, honest way, 68 00:05:53,607 --> 00:05:59,204 can aIso heIp the democracy, 69 00:06:00,207 --> 00:06:05,281 which was onIy a smaII pIant at this time, which has to grow. 70 00:06:06,647 --> 00:06:10,083 And we were absoIuteIy sure at this time 71 00:06:10,127 --> 00:06:16,441 that that couId heIp aItogether to make a new society. 72 00:06:24,327 --> 00:06:28,081 Functional hi-tech became the design signature, 73 00:06:28,127 --> 00:06:31,642 not just of Braun, but of post-war West Germany. 74 00:06:32,927 --> 00:06:35,805 Few designers have been as influential. 75 00:06:42,887 --> 00:06:45,879 We used to worship at the aItar of Dieter Rams. 76 00:06:45,927 --> 00:06:47,155 Terrific! 77 00:06:48,647 --> 00:06:52,037 There was a purity and an essence and a perfection about that 78 00:06:52,087 --> 00:06:54,840 which we aII Ioved as designers. 79 00:07:02,927 --> 00:07:07,762 It taught you many, many things about economy of form, apart from anything eIse. 80 00:07:07,807 --> 00:07:10,560 But it taught me personaIIy something very important. 81 00:07:10,967 --> 00:07:14,676 The idea of being abIe to remove that which is unnecessary 82 00:07:14,727 --> 00:07:16,604 and get to the point of what is, 83 00:07:16,647 --> 00:07:19,115 doesn't mean it's dry or emotionIess. 84 00:07:19,607 --> 00:07:24,044 But what it does mean is that it shouId be exactIy what it shouId be 85 00:07:24,087 --> 00:07:25,918 and not an awfuI Iot more. 86 00:07:27,767 --> 00:07:33,239 And 50 years later, Dieter's disciples still seek the Zen of technology. 87 00:07:38,887 --> 00:07:43,358 For us, simpIicity is one of our fundamentaI phiIosophies. 88 00:07:43,407 --> 00:07:50,279 How you can just remove and remove to create something so optimaI, 89 00:07:51,207 --> 00:07:55,519 and I think there's just an inherent beauty when you reach that point 90 00:07:55,567 --> 00:08:00,402 of you couIdn't possibIy soIve these probIems 91 00:08:00,967 --> 00:08:02,958 with anything Iess. 92 00:08:11,527 --> 00:08:15,998 The minimalist route to modern design was also pursued in Britain after the war 93 00:08:17,927 --> 00:08:21,397 on a much larger canvas than domestic technology. 94 00:08:23,887 --> 00:08:29,723 The motorways' extended this idea of modernism to a much bigger, broader worId. 95 00:08:29,767 --> 00:08:32,804 Everybody was drawn into it as they started to use the motorways. 96 00:08:34,287 --> 00:08:37,120 This was something terribIy new to the British, 97 00:08:37,167 --> 00:08:40,284 and, I think, to some peopIe, a IittIe bit frightening. 98 00:08:41,327 --> 00:08:44,922 Construction of the first motorway began in 1 956. 99 00:08:44,967 --> 00:08:48,357 And with it came signs of where the nation was headed. 100 00:09:02,607 --> 00:09:04,563 Just like Dieter Rams' work, 101 00:09:04,607 --> 00:09:07,644 this graphic design is a model of clarity. 102 00:09:10,287 --> 00:09:13,677 You don't want them to be fussy, so it's reaIIy very minimaI. 103 00:09:14,567 --> 00:09:18,321 We were aiming for perfection of a kind. 104 00:09:19,687 --> 00:09:21,962 They were designing in the functionaI tradition. 105 00:09:22,087 --> 00:09:25,602 ''Fitness for purpose and simpIicity are the keys to good design'' 106 00:09:26,247 --> 00:09:30,525 is the motto those designers were brought up in, and that's what they practised. 107 00:09:31,287 --> 00:09:35,963 Margaret Calvert was straight out of art school when she teamed up with Jock Kinneir 108 00:09:36,007 --> 00:09:38,601 to change the face of Britain's roads. 109 00:09:40,087 --> 00:09:44,558 We were reaIIy seen as vuIgar, brash, brave new worId, I Iike to think. 110 00:09:45,807 --> 00:09:53,282 EngIand was very conservative in terms of very formaI, traditionaI capitaIs, 111 00:09:53,327 --> 00:09:56,000 beautifuIIy spaced, serif typefaces. 112 00:09:56,487 --> 00:09:58,682 DuII, duII, duII. 113 00:09:59,567 --> 00:10:01,637 We IiteraIIy did start from scratch. 114 00:10:03,687 --> 00:10:05,678 ln place of the jumble of old signs, 115 00:10:06,247 --> 00:10:09,523 Kinneir and Calvert created their own font - ''Transport'', 116 00:10:10,447 --> 00:10:14,156 and a uniform standard where every element enhanced legibility. 117 00:10:15,167 --> 00:10:18,637 Your starting point was from the point of view of the driver. 118 00:10:18,687 --> 00:10:21,997 What do you want to know, what do you want to see, and in what order? 119 00:10:22,047 --> 00:10:25,119 From a distance you read word shape. 120 00:10:25,167 --> 00:10:30,844 If you can't read the individuaI Ietters, you're actuaIIy taking in the shape of the name. 121 00:10:37,847 --> 00:10:42,125 Calvert and Kinneir went on to design all Britain's road signage. 122 00:10:43,007 --> 00:10:48,127 Their work has been described as the closest thing we have to a national corporate identity. 123 00:10:50,727 --> 00:10:54,322 And yet, some of the pictograms that are now part of the public landscape, 124 00:10:54,367 --> 00:10:57,245 in fact have a private inspiration. 125 00:10:59,007 --> 00:11:02,602 I started to think of myseIf at that age, 126 00:11:02,647 --> 00:11:05,923 and I based it on me. 127 00:11:06,727 --> 00:11:09,116 I think the hair's stiII the same, isn't it? 128 00:11:10,687 --> 00:11:14,726 Margaret's alter-ego is helping a boy across the road, 129 00:11:15,487 --> 00:11:17,637 a reversal of traditional roles. 130 00:11:17,687 --> 00:11:22,397 The sign that they had for schooIs was a grammar schooI boy, 131 00:11:22,447 --> 00:11:25,723 and I just feIt, ''WeII, why not change it?'' 132 00:11:25,767 --> 00:11:30,795 Let's have no schooI uniforms, no reference to grammar schooIs, 133 00:11:30,847 --> 00:11:33,725 because the co-educationaI system was coming in, 134 00:11:34,247 --> 00:11:36,556 and I thought it shouId be more incIusive. 135 00:11:43,367 --> 00:11:46,882 Calvert's graphic was a sign of changing times. 136 00:11:50,887 --> 00:11:55,642 The comprehensive system was taking shape in the same era as the motorways. 137 00:11:55,687 --> 00:12:00,602 As politicians attempted social engineering, designers had more work to do. 138 00:12:10,527 --> 00:12:14,361 After nearly 50 years and 1 4 million sales, 139 00:12:15,007 --> 00:12:16,998 the Polyprop remains hard to beat. 140 00:12:18,607 --> 00:12:21,280 Young designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby 141 00:12:21,327 --> 00:12:24,797 would love to create something with the same qualities.. 142 00:12:28,767 --> 00:12:30,325 stackable, 143 00:12:31,407 --> 00:12:34,638 light, strong, 144 00:12:35,447 --> 00:12:36,800 washable 145 00:12:37,647 --> 00:12:39,126 comfortable. 146 00:12:39,167 --> 00:12:41,283 They've studied Day's design closely 147 00:12:43,527 --> 00:12:45,518 from a very early age. 148 00:12:46,767 --> 00:12:49,759 I think I had one over my head once when I was at schooI. 149 00:12:50,087 --> 00:12:52,078 I used to carve into it, 150 00:12:52,127 --> 00:12:55,278 because you couId actuaIIy scratch quite weII into the side of it. 151 00:12:55,327 --> 00:13:00,560 And aIso with a magnifying gIass in the summer you couId burn your name into the back of it. 152 00:13:01,287 --> 00:13:05,883 As a consequence of its universaIity, it's reaIIy hard to Iook at. 153 00:13:05,927 --> 00:13:10,318 It has this kind of anonymity now because it's so present, 154 00:13:11,087 --> 00:13:15,239 and it's so deep rooted in our Iandscape. 155 00:13:16,247 --> 00:13:19,444 The Polyprop was perfect for public buildings, 156 00:13:19,847 --> 00:13:21,838 not least because it was very cheap. 157 00:13:23,167 --> 00:13:25,362 That is the HoIy GraiI for the designer - 158 00:13:25,407 --> 00:13:29,286 to produce the best possibIe Iow-cost piece of furniture. 159 00:13:30,127 --> 00:13:34,917 Day's new chair cost less than a quarter of the price of its traditional wooden rivals 160 00:13:34,967 --> 00:13:37,925 mostly because it was so quick to produce. 161 00:13:39,567 --> 00:13:45,642 It's rather unusuaI to speak of moraIs in this fieId, isn't it? 162 00:13:48,487 --> 00:13:54,119 That peopIe anywhere in the worId couId get chairs that were Iow-cost 163 00:13:54,167 --> 00:13:59,082 and indestructibIe and good for posture and so on, 164 00:13:59,127 --> 00:14:03,006 yeah, I think I feIt that that was a moraI obIigation. 165 00:14:04,047 --> 00:14:06,197 One I was very happy to work on. 166 00:14:06,247 --> 00:14:11,196 It's a sociaIist concept that Iow-cost, good design is right for everybody, 167 00:14:11,247 --> 00:14:14,080 but it's aIso a reaction to over-ornament 168 00:14:14,687 --> 00:14:17,485 and its association with bourgeois Iiving 169 00:14:17,527 --> 00:14:21,918 and it's the idea that good, simpIe design is fit for purpose and fit for everybody. 170 00:14:21,967 --> 00:14:24,481 And this chair is that. 171 00:14:27,727 --> 00:14:33,006 While designers in post-war Britain modestly saw themselves as servants of society, 172 00:14:33,047 --> 00:14:36,835 elsewhere in Europe they were lauded as artists. 173 00:14:53,367 --> 00:14:57,724 No-one could accuse ltalian style of being anonymous or minimal. 174 00:15:03,167 --> 00:15:06,443 I'm Iooking for some exampIes. 175 00:15:07,487 --> 00:15:12,686 Alberto Alessi was born into a firm which embodies the ltalian approach to design. 176 00:15:13,767 --> 00:15:18,238 The company museum is stuffed with six decades-worth of experiments. 177 00:15:20,327 --> 00:15:25,560 These are the very first prototypes of two projects by AchiIIe CastigIioni, 178 00:15:26,367 --> 00:15:28,642 a Iarge fruit bowI. 179 00:15:28,687 --> 00:15:35,001 This is a prototype made by the famous miIIionaires' modeI maker, Sacchi. 180 00:15:36,007 --> 00:15:39,966 The AIdo Rossi coffee pot. 181 00:15:44,527 --> 00:15:49,078 I don't mind so much about what the pubIic wants. 182 00:15:49,807 --> 00:15:55,404 It is aIways difficuIt to interpret what peopIe want, 183 00:15:56,447 --> 00:15:59,041 foIIowing marketing research, I mean. 184 00:15:59,487 --> 00:16:03,196 I prefer to use intuition and sensibiIity. 185 00:16:05,447 --> 00:16:10,760 We use a different method of creation for objects, 186 00:16:10,807 --> 00:16:14,800 which is an artistic system, an artistic method. 187 00:16:23,967 --> 00:16:29,246 This design captures the moment Alessi began producing on an industrial scale. 188 00:16:33,727 --> 00:16:39,438 lt dates from the point when ltalian style began to be exported around the world. 189 00:16:40,767 --> 00:16:43,565 The start of this phenomenon of ItaIian design 190 00:16:43,607 --> 00:16:46,963 is considered to be right after the Second WorId War. 191 00:16:48,967 --> 00:16:52,755 There was a new generation of industriaIists 192 00:16:52,807 --> 00:16:54,604 Iike my father. 193 00:16:54,647 --> 00:17:04,682 ParaIIeI to that, there was an extraordinary generation of new young ItaIian designers. 194 00:17:05,727 --> 00:17:09,879 Many manufacturers were quite happy to taIk to 195 00:17:09,927 --> 00:17:13,044 very interesting avant-garde architects and designers. 196 00:17:13,087 --> 00:17:14,918 They were their friends very often, 197 00:17:14,967 --> 00:17:18,676 and many ItaIian business peopIe had trained as architects or designers 198 00:17:18,727 --> 00:17:20,365 or engineers themseIves. 199 00:17:20,407 --> 00:17:22,443 Quite a different tradition from Britain, 200 00:17:22,487 --> 00:17:25,559 where business peopIe were, on the whoIe, business peopIe. 201 00:17:30,127 --> 00:17:33,119 Marshall Plan Funding encouraged ltalian industry 202 00:17:33,207 --> 00:17:36,517 to move in this artistic and peaceful new direction. 203 00:17:39,127 --> 00:17:44,121 Designer goods built the foundation for ltaly's post-war economic miracle. 204 00:17:49,887 --> 00:17:54,278 So ltalian designers, treated, and sometimes indulged as artists, 205 00:17:54,687 --> 00:17:57,155 were often memorable characters. 206 00:18:05,407 --> 00:18:09,036 The most exuberant of them all was Joe Colombo. 207 00:18:12,807 --> 00:18:15,321 Joe loved jazz, cars, 208 00:18:15,367 --> 00:18:18,086 skiing, drinking, and smoking. 209 00:18:20,887 --> 00:18:24,038 He was also fond of curves and experimentation. 210 00:18:29,687 --> 00:18:32,440 Above all, he loved the notion of change, 211 00:18:33,247 --> 00:18:37,126 and spent his career trying to create the environment of the future. 212 00:18:39,167 --> 00:18:43,080 I remember that it was fantastic to come every year to MiIan Fair 213 00:18:43,127 --> 00:18:45,482 and see what Joey cooked up now. 214 00:18:46,367 --> 00:18:48,358 Because he aIways had something... 215 00:18:48,407 --> 00:18:51,205 You probabIy heard about the convertibIe bed. 216 00:18:56,687 --> 00:19:01,477 The Cabriolet Bed's hood could be brought down like that of a convertible car 217 00:19:02,447 --> 00:19:06,804 to create the kind of privacy sometimes required by a man about town. 218 00:19:07,687 --> 00:19:10,679 lt came with built-in radio, phone, 219 00:19:10,727 --> 00:19:12,718 fan and cigarette lighter. 220 00:19:13,047 --> 00:19:15,038 Everything but the girl. 221 00:19:23,647 --> 00:19:26,878 He had aII sorts of gadgets, which he Ioved, 222 00:19:26,927 --> 00:19:28,838 and he was such a muIti-tasker. 223 00:19:31,527 --> 00:19:33,722 And he was aIso a futurist. 224 00:19:33,767 --> 00:19:36,645 He aIways wanted to know: What wiII happen next? 225 00:19:40,047 --> 00:19:43,756 So he aIways was treading a few steps ahead of the crowd. 226 00:19:45,927 --> 00:19:47,918 And he was a very nice guy, to boot. 227 00:19:47,967 --> 00:19:50,720 ReaIIy nice, good company. He was... 228 00:19:50,767 --> 00:19:53,884 We drank weII together and so forth. He was OK. 229 00:19:59,007 --> 00:20:02,636 ln many ways, Joe was a quintessentially '60s figure. 230 00:20:04,327 --> 00:20:07,000 Above all, in his favourite choice of material. 231 00:20:08,167 --> 00:20:10,158 Plastic had now come of age. 232 00:20:13,567 --> 00:20:22,680 Can you imagine, how from this smeIIy, stinky oiI we have made something incredibIe. 233 00:20:22,727 --> 00:20:28,882 That's why pIastic is one of the incredibIe symptoms of our inteIIigence 234 00:20:28,927 --> 00:20:30,918 and creativity of science. 235 00:20:33,407 --> 00:20:36,160 PIastic is rock 'n roII. 236 00:20:37,047 --> 00:20:40,039 You were suddenIy Iiberated to do whatever you want. 237 00:21:04,567 --> 00:21:07,559 Plastic so perfectly captured the '60s zeitgeist 238 00:21:07,607 --> 00:21:12,362 that in this Brussels museum, the decade is still alive and well. 239 00:21:14,927 --> 00:21:19,637 Here is the first object that I find on the garbage from Joe CoIombo. 240 00:21:19,687 --> 00:21:21,564 I decided this is it. 241 00:21:21,607 --> 00:21:24,485 If they just throw away things of a great designer, 242 00:21:24,527 --> 00:21:26,324 it's time to begin a coIIection. 243 00:21:26,367 --> 00:21:29,484 But when I start, I cannot stop. 244 00:21:34,047 --> 00:21:36,800 PersonaIIy, I Iike that one very much. 245 00:21:37,167 --> 00:21:42,878 I think that if Queen Victoria was stiII Iiving today, she wouId use that. 246 00:21:46,367 --> 00:21:50,838 This is one of the first pieces of the coIIection - the Garden Egg. 247 00:21:51,167 --> 00:21:53,158 When you want to use it, you open it, 248 00:21:54,087 --> 00:21:57,284 and if it begins to rain, you just shut it. 249 00:22:08,727 --> 00:22:12,606 We have here the gIove of Joe DiMaggio 250 00:22:12,647 --> 00:22:16,083 who has been the husband of MariIyn Monroe for one year. 251 00:22:17,207 --> 00:22:20,085 More pop than that is impossibIe to imagine. 252 00:22:21,727 --> 00:22:26,278 It's the BaII Chair of Eero Aarnio from FinIand, 253 00:22:26,327 --> 00:22:33,278 and if you put that in a big area, you have the impression that you bring back a certain... 254 00:22:35,967 --> 00:22:37,798 I don't find the word. 255 00:22:41,767 --> 00:22:46,397 What unites Philippe's collection isn't a single style, or even quality, 256 00:22:47,527 --> 00:22:52,317 it's the uniquely optimistic spirit of the time in which these objects were created. 257 00:22:53,567 --> 00:22:58,925 It was totaIIy different with what the peopIe used to see before the Second WorId War, 258 00:22:58,967 --> 00:23:03,643 and that gives to the youth an impression that there was a new worId beginning. 259 00:23:07,167 --> 00:23:09,158 This is a chair. 260 00:23:09,807 --> 00:23:13,356 You sit here, you put your head here. 261 00:23:13,407 --> 00:23:17,605 Everybody is Iying, and smoking, and dreaming, 262 00:23:17,647 --> 00:23:20,639 and so it was reaIIy the cuIture of the time. 263 00:23:20,687 --> 00:23:24,043 And I Iike that too because I'm running after my youth. 264 00:23:27,727 --> 00:23:31,720 PIastic in the 1 960s reaIIy promises a kind of Iiberation 265 00:23:31,767 --> 00:23:33,883 to both the designer and the consumer. 266 00:23:40,167 --> 00:23:42,522 It is a very enjoyabIe form of design. 267 00:23:42,567 --> 00:23:45,206 It's rather as if furniture itseIf has become a party game 268 00:23:45,247 --> 00:23:50,241 and that these big infIatabIe bits of furniture, they're Iike party baIIoons that chiIdren hoId up. 269 00:23:50,287 --> 00:23:52,118 So Iife's become a party. 270 00:23:54,607 --> 00:23:57,724 Plastic products were perfect for teenage consumers 271 00:23:57,767 --> 00:24:01,282 keen to throw off the austerity of their parents'generation. 272 00:24:02,207 --> 00:24:05,165 Fashionable, affordable, and disposable, 273 00:24:05,207 --> 00:24:08,483 they seduced with a promise of no-strings fun. 274 00:24:10,007 --> 00:24:12,680 Many of these objects are about a very seIf-conscious way 275 00:24:12,727 --> 00:24:14,763 of constructing a new IifestyIe. 276 00:24:14,807 --> 00:24:18,925 A IifestyIe that isn't about inheriting your parents' furniture, 277 00:24:18,967 --> 00:24:24,405 because how do you hand an infIatabIe chair to your chiIdren or your grandchiIdren? 278 00:24:26,847 --> 00:24:32,001 It's about a compIete shift in generationaI understanding of everyday Iiving. 279 00:24:48,127 --> 00:24:51,437 The designer who most exemplified this spirit of the '60s, 280 00:24:51,487 --> 00:24:54,957 who took design to the edge of what was possible and then beyond, 281 00:24:55,007 --> 00:24:56,998 was Verner Panton. 282 00:24:57,367 --> 00:25:00,882 Born in Denmark, he had a very strong tradition to kick against. 283 00:25:01,607 --> 00:25:04,917 Early in his career he worked for Arne Jacobsen, 284 00:25:04,967 --> 00:25:08,164 who designed in a well-established Scandinavian style. 285 00:25:11,087 --> 00:25:13,806 Humane, understated, 286 00:25:15,087 --> 00:25:17,237 sensible. 287 00:25:17,287 --> 00:25:20,279 Everything was brown and beige 288 00:25:20,327 --> 00:25:22,716 and dirty coIours, 289 00:25:22,927 --> 00:25:26,044 and then Verner came with aII his briIIiant coIours 290 00:25:26,967 --> 00:25:30,596 and everybody said that he was absoIuteIy crazy. 291 00:25:30,647 --> 00:25:36,563 Back then peopIe were used to Iiving the same way their grandfathers and grandmothers did, 292 00:25:36,727 --> 00:25:41,323 and it was just not done to change anything. 293 00:25:41,367 --> 00:25:47,283 And he definiteIy wanted to do something eIse and show ''you have other possibiIities too''. 294 00:25:53,087 --> 00:25:56,921 When his 1 958 design for the Cone chair was shown in New York, 295 00:25:56,967 --> 00:25:59,481 the police had it removed from the shop window 296 00:25:59,527 --> 00:26:02,837 because of the size of the crowd that had gathered to see it. 297 00:26:07,647 --> 00:26:10,081 But Verner had only just begun. 298 00:26:10,887 --> 00:26:13,765 He dreamed of something no-one had yet achieved - 299 00:26:13,807 --> 00:26:18,961 a chair that would be moulded entirely from a single unbroken piece of plastic. 300 00:26:20,087 --> 00:26:24,956 Unlike Robin Day's Polyprop, it wouldn't be supported by separate metal legs. 301 00:26:25,367 --> 00:26:28,643 ln fact, it wouldn't really have legs at all. 302 00:26:31,127 --> 00:26:36,520 For three long years, Verner struggled to find a manufacturer who'd take his design seriously. 303 00:26:38,767 --> 00:26:42,237 We were traveIIing around in Europe to find a producer for it, 304 00:26:42,847 --> 00:26:44,838 and that was not very easy. 305 00:26:46,007 --> 00:26:48,885 And then he came to BaseI and showed it to my father, 306 00:26:49,487 --> 00:26:51,239 and my father got interested. 307 00:26:52,687 --> 00:26:57,681 We aII feIt, ''WeII, we have something quite extraordinary, but is it possibIe?'' 308 00:26:59,967 --> 00:27:03,277 We first did it in poIyester and fibregIass 309 00:27:03,327 --> 00:27:07,081 and then we worked on foam. 310 00:27:07,127 --> 00:27:10,836 It went back and forth, triaI and error, going through materiaIs. 311 00:27:15,607 --> 00:27:19,202 After several years of intensive technical experimentation, 312 00:27:20,487 --> 00:27:25,277 an astonished world finally got to perch upon the finished product. 313 00:27:36,247 --> 00:27:38,681 That was the first pIastic chair 314 00:27:38,727 --> 00:27:43,323 that was not trying to mimic the chairs that had been there before. 315 00:27:43,367 --> 00:27:48,077 It was the first pIastic chair that was, reaIIy, in that sense, compIeteIy new. 316 00:27:49,807 --> 00:27:54,278 The slender cantilevered seat isjust strong enough to support the human body. 317 00:27:54,967 --> 00:27:57,561 And look, Ma. No legs. 318 00:28:04,807 --> 00:28:10,006 It was the first singIe materiaI, singIe-form chair ever to be injection mouIded in pIastic. 319 00:28:10,247 --> 00:28:12,238 And that is the HoIy GraiI in design - 320 00:28:12,287 --> 00:28:16,280 to create singIe-form products that can be absoIuteIy mass-produced, 321 00:28:17,047 --> 00:28:18,799 just as if they were road cones. 322 00:28:18,847 --> 00:28:20,883 That's what the objective was. It was a dream. 323 00:28:29,247 --> 00:28:32,319 That dream hadn't yet fully come true. 324 00:28:34,287 --> 00:28:37,882 Early production depended on expensive manual labour. 325 00:28:38,567 --> 00:28:41,843 Later models, in a different plastic, frequently broke. 326 00:28:43,167 --> 00:28:47,319 Only in the 1 990s did technology finally reach the point 327 00:28:47,367 --> 00:28:51,883 where the design could be reliably and cheaply mass produced in polypropylene. 328 00:28:56,007 --> 00:28:57,759 The Panton chair is a compIete paradox, 329 00:28:57,807 --> 00:29:02,244 because, whiIe on the one hand it is, without any doubt, a design cIassic, 330 00:29:02,287 --> 00:29:05,757 it was reaIIy a commerciaI faiIure. 331 00:29:06,487 --> 00:29:09,240 It has virtuaIIy no contract appIication. 332 00:29:09,287 --> 00:29:12,484 Can you see this chair in a hospitaI? Can you see this chair in an office? 333 00:29:12,527 --> 00:29:15,883 They were never gonna earn back their costs for the amount of investment. 334 00:29:15,927 --> 00:29:19,442 It was basicaIIy a fIyer they took, and it didn't make it. 335 00:29:24,327 --> 00:29:27,205 But the practicalities were never the whole point. 336 00:29:28,607 --> 00:29:32,998 The S Chair was to furniture what The White Album was to pop music. 337 00:29:33,727 --> 00:29:38,403 As much as it's something to sit on, it's about the concept of a chair. 338 00:29:40,807 --> 00:29:43,924 lt was a design as liberated as its times. 339 00:29:44,607 --> 00:29:48,600 Something Amanda Lear made explicit for the readers of Nova magazine. 340 00:29:52,487 --> 00:29:57,800 There was this idea that we have to compIeteIy forget about tradition. 341 00:29:58,647 --> 00:30:02,879 When peopIe untiI now sat on this height, we have to sit on the fIoor. 342 00:30:02,927 --> 00:30:06,283 If peopIe were doing this standing, we have to do it sitting. 343 00:30:06,327 --> 00:30:09,046 If they were on one IeveI, we have to create two IeveIs. 344 00:30:09,087 --> 00:30:12,238 It was the idea of a totaI new beginning. 345 00:30:24,167 --> 00:30:28,479 For Verner, changing where you sat could change the way you saw the world. 346 00:30:29,087 --> 00:30:31,999 Free your ass, and the mind will follow. 347 00:30:34,207 --> 00:30:37,085 He'd now moved into what he called ''total design'', 348 00:30:37,807 --> 00:30:40,196 wall to wall, and floor to ceiling. 349 00:30:40,847 --> 00:30:43,998 Furniture, textiles, lighting. 350 00:30:45,967 --> 00:30:50,358 And what he's getting into there, high Design with a capitaI D, and environments, 351 00:30:50,407 --> 00:30:52,318 and this new worId of introspection 352 00:30:52,367 --> 00:30:56,280 which was coming out of haIIucinogenic drugs, Iike LSD and mescaIine, 353 00:30:57,287 --> 00:31:02,441 that exempIifies the psychedeIic urge to design an environment 354 00:31:02,487 --> 00:31:06,799 that expresses some kind of inner voyage or trip. 355 00:31:10,327 --> 00:31:13,285 This period saw the start of a design revolution 356 00:31:13,327 --> 00:31:17,002 which would liberate us all in a fundamental way. 357 00:31:18,167 --> 00:31:20,681 But it didn't take the form Panton dreamed of. 358 00:31:21,687 --> 00:31:28,081 As it turned out, the road to personal freedom wasn't paved with psychedelic soft furnishings. 359 00:31:37,927 --> 00:31:43,126 The design philosophy that truly expanded our minds was to make stuff smaller. 360 00:31:43,727 --> 00:31:45,877 Miniaturisation meant you couId be mobiIe, 361 00:31:45,927 --> 00:31:49,522 and if you couId be mobiIe you couId create your own worId and environment. 362 00:31:49,567 --> 00:31:54,243 That strikes me as one of the most significant behaviouraI changes of the past haIf century. 363 00:31:56,087 --> 00:32:02,003 Electronics, like plastics, promised near infinite potential for post-war designers. 364 00:32:04,167 --> 00:32:07,443 Japan rebuilt its economy by creating new technology 365 00:32:07,487 --> 00:32:09,682 it could sell to the world's consumers. 366 00:32:12,887 --> 00:32:17,597 Their most successful corporation realised they had to do more than invent gadgets. 367 00:32:18,247 --> 00:32:20,397 They designed a new lifestyle. 368 00:32:21,007 --> 00:32:22,998 A mobile lifestyle. 369 00:32:25,927 --> 00:32:30,682 Sony's commercial breakthrough came with this portable radio in 1 955. 370 00:32:33,887 --> 00:32:37,004 The transistor had been invented in the United States. 371 00:32:38,727 --> 00:32:41,525 Smaller and more durable than valve technology, 372 00:32:42,047 --> 00:32:44,720 it's the foundation of all modern electronics. 373 00:32:46,127 --> 00:32:49,563 The peopIe who invented the transistor, BeII Labs, in 1 947, 374 00:32:49,607 --> 00:32:53,486 said something Iike, ''There are no commerciaI appIications for the transistor.'' 375 00:32:53,527 --> 00:32:57,202 And as far as the Americans were concerned, up to about 1 955, there weren't, 376 00:32:57,247 --> 00:32:59,886 but then Sony showed them that, indeed, there were. 377 00:33:01,367 --> 00:33:06,077 They managed to bring together aII that was best of Japanese cuIture, 378 00:33:06,127 --> 00:33:10,439 which is care, discipIine, attention to detaiI. 379 00:33:11,767 --> 00:33:14,918 They brought that together with briIIiant American technoIogy, 380 00:33:14,967 --> 00:33:18,323 and a bit of American Barnum & BaiIey. 381 00:33:21,047 --> 00:33:25,962 Sony didn't just pioneer new miniaturised products more frequently than their rivals. 382 00:33:27,487 --> 00:33:32,277 They were widely regarded as the market leaders in all aspects of electronics design. 383 00:33:33,927 --> 00:33:36,600 That's the first Sony pocket radio. 384 00:33:36,647 --> 00:33:38,638 In fact, the worId's first pocket radio. 385 00:33:38,687 --> 00:33:40,564 1 956. 386 00:33:40,607 --> 00:33:42,563 This is the originaI Sony Iogo. 387 00:33:43,007 --> 00:33:46,124 The next radios they went over to the newer modern type. 388 00:33:46,887 --> 00:33:48,605 Japan was a very dynamic country, 389 00:33:48,647 --> 00:33:53,721 and peopIe wanted to produce the best, and the smaIIest and the most extreme of everything. 390 00:33:56,007 --> 00:33:58,521 They were hungry, as Germany and ItaIy were at the time. 391 00:33:58,567 --> 00:34:00,922 They wanted a new worId, they had to rebuiId themseIves. 392 00:34:00,967 --> 00:34:04,118 They'd been destroyed. They just tried harder. 393 00:34:04,167 --> 00:34:05,998 Here's one for the girIs. 394 00:34:06,047 --> 00:34:09,039 The way it's presented in a sort of jeweIIery case... 395 00:34:10,407 --> 00:34:12,602 There was a design Ianguage which they deveIoped 396 00:34:12,647 --> 00:34:18,722 which was superbIy abIe to articuIate concepts of miniaturisation and preciousness. 397 00:34:18,767 --> 00:34:20,564 Very good quaIity graphics. 398 00:34:20,607 --> 00:34:24,646 FabuIousIy weII detaiIed smaII controIs and diaIs. 399 00:34:24,807 --> 00:34:26,798 It was aIso dignifying 400 00:34:26,847 --> 00:34:29,407 because it didn't Iook Iike a piece of tat. 401 00:34:29,447 --> 00:34:32,598 It Iooked Iike a piece of something very, very, very precious. 402 00:34:32,647 --> 00:34:37,323 This is a radio with charger and earphones. 403 00:34:37,687 --> 00:34:39,996 It's absoIuteIy minute, as you can see. 404 00:34:40,047 --> 00:34:42,515 The uItimate aim of design is to seII things. 405 00:34:44,167 --> 00:34:50,163 SuccessfuI design, I think, aImost has a toy-Iike magic and passion, feeI. 406 00:34:51,327 --> 00:34:56,481 You sought to see a Sony project and you actuaIIy wanted to touch it. 407 00:34:56,527 --> 00:34:59,439 20 years Iater, Steve Jobs of AppIe Computers said, 408 00:34:59,927 --> 00:35:02,441 ''You know a design is good if you want to Iick it.'' 409 00:35:02,487 --> 00:35:07,481 It excited cupidity in a way which other products didn't. 410 00:35:09,527 --> 00:35:12,917 lt wasn't just the way these designs looked that sold them, 411 00:35:12,967 --> 00:35:14,923 nor their consistent quality. 412 00:35:14,967 --> 00:35:18,721 Above all, it was the liberation they promised consumers. 413 00:35:20,087 --> 00:35:23,557 The teenagers in the '50s and '60s suddenIy had higher wages. 414 00:35:23,607 --> 00:35:27,725 They couId go out, they had their own Iives rather than having to Iive with their parents 415 00:35:27,767 --> 00:35:29,564 as sort of junior aduIts. 416 00:35:29,607 --> 00:35:33,282 And so they wanted their own... It gave you freedom. 417 00:35:34,727 --> 00:35:37,161 You couId take your music and your tastes with you, 418 00:35:37,207 --> 00:35:40,677 rather than just have to sit at home in front of an enormous great wooden box 419 00:35:40,727 --> 00:35:42,718 Iike previous generations had to. 420 00:35:55,367 --> 00:36:00,487 One design more than any other established the portable lifestyle we now take for granted. 421 00:36:14,167 --> 00:36:15,566 (SPeaks JaPanese) 422 00:36:18,167 --> 00:36:20,203 TRANSLATOR: I got my hands on the prototype 423 00:36:20,247 --> 00:36:23,922 and was aIIowed to waIk around the office with the headphones on. 424 00:36:24,687 --> 00:36:26,678 Such a thing seemed impossibIe. 425 00:36:27,767 --> 00:36:31,885 I remember feeIing Iike I was in a scene from a movie. It was very exciting. 426 00:36:33,767 --> 00:36:35,883 I feeI Iike an archaeoIogist, reaIIy. 427 00:36:37,007 --> 00:36:40,682 So many things to say about this. It's such an evocative product. 428 00:36:41,887 --> 00:36:46,722 But what's reaIIy been designed here is a new human experience. 429 00:36:51,007 --> 00:36:52,759 It wasn't caIIed virtuaI in those days 430 00:36:52,807 --> 00:36:58,120 but the great innovation of the WaIkman was creating a separate reaIity for the user. 431 00:37:18,687 --> 00:37:22,680 Our nomadic desire to carry our world with us wherever we go 432 00:37:22,727 --> 00:37:25,764 had inspired other designers back in the '60s. 433 00:37:26,887 --> 00:37:31,642 The FuturoPod was a rather different interpretation of portable lifestyle. 434 00:37:38,687 --> 00:37:41,326 This one's touching down in Lakewood, New Jersey, 435 00:37:42,007 --> 00:37:44,282 where it's still standing to this day... 436 00:37:45,407 --> 00:37:47,079 .. just about. 437 00:37:52,727 --> 00:37:56,037 There's something very beautifuI about it, and poignant. 438 00:37:56,367 --> 00:38:00,838 The utopian fantasy - that's what it ends up as. 439 00:38:00,887 --> 00:38:04,118 Here's some big funky Ieak right there, dripping water. 440 00:38:06,447 --> 00:38:09,041 A romantic ruin of the modern era. 441 00:38:12,207 --> 00:38:16,246 The Futuro was designed in 1 968 by Matti Suuronen, 442 00:38:17,127 --> 00:38:20,437 and manufactured by Finnish firm Polykem. 443 00:38:21,367 --> 00:38:23,756 lt was built largely from polyester. 444 00:38:24,807 --> 00:38:28,197 Two decades after plastics started appearing in our kitchens, 445 00:38:28,247 --> 00:38:30,761 here was Tupperware you could live in. 446 00:38:31,887 --> 00:38:34,526 They onIy made about 60 or 70 of them, I think. 447 00:38:34,567 --> 00:38:39,482 The iIIusion was that they wouId pIop down Iike spaceships. The heIicopter wouId bring them. 448 00:38:39,527 --> 00:38:43,156 But, of course, they have to be hooked up to a cesspooI and to pIumbing, 449 00:38:43,207 --> 00:38:44,925 so that destroyed the iIIusion. 450 00:38:46,367 --> 00:38:49,006 The Futuro House fell to earth rapidly. 451 00:38:49,487 --> 00:38:52,399 Dreams of space-age living were swiftly grounded. 452 00:38:54,167 --> 00:38:56,078 Just as the pod was launched, 453 00:38:56,127 --> 00:38:59,722 people were beginning to question whether the future was quite as bright 454 00:38:59,767 --> 00:39:01,758 as had long been promised. 455 00:39:05,527 --> 00:39:09,406 This was a criticaI moment in human awareness about the environment. 456 00:39:10,287 --> 00:39:12,403 PeopIe reaIised how toxic pIastic is. 457 00:39:13,087 --> 00:39:14,679 It goes from what's sIeek and sexy 458 00:39:14,727 --> 00:39:17,799 to everything that's bad and negative in Western society. 459 00:39:23,527 --> 00:39:26,280 This sort of feeIing that we can just do anything we want, 460 00:39:26,327 --> 00:39:28,079 we can produce as many things as we want, 461 00:39:28,127 --> 00:39:31,199 we can consume as much as we want, starts to disappear. 462 00:39:31,327 --> 00:39:33,363 We've got to start Iooking after the pIanet, 463 00:39:33,407 --> 00:39:36,877 and stop chucking out pIastic containers and pIastic bottIes. 464 00:39:39,607 --> 00:39:42,679 Neither biodegradable nor easy to recycle, 465 00:39:43,287 --> 00:39:47,041 the material of the future turned out to be hard to get rid of. 466 00:39:50,687 --> 00:39:52,678 lt both lasts too long 467 00:39:53,327 --> 00:39:55,318 yet ages badly. 468 00:39:56,727 --> 00:39:59,036 The mahogany tabIe, it buiIds up a patina. 469 00:39:59,487 --> 00:40:03,799 This kind of materiaIity of use that gives it vaIue, 470 00:40:03,847 --> 00:40:06,407 that makes it more beautifuI the more it's used. 471 00:40:06,447 --> 00:40:09,883 Whereas pIastic actuaIIy Iooks the most beautifuI when it's new. 472 00:40:12,167 --> 00:40:17,002 Vitra, the firm which turned Werner Panton's visions into reality, 473 00:40:17,047 --> 00:40:21,120 now expects its furniture restorer to double as plastic surgeon. 474 00:40:22,927 --> 00:40:26,556 In the '60s, or the post-war time, 475 00:40:26,807 --> 00:40:28,798 they haven't had the knowIedge 476 00:40:28,847 --> 00:40:31,361 about how pIastics wiII behave in the future. 477 00:40:32,487 --> 00:40:36,400 They started just to mix up components to see what happens. 478 00:40:38,167 --> 00:40:42,763 What you see here is they chose poIyester as a pIastic materiaI, 479 00:40:42,807 --> 00:40:44,399 but it's very brittIe. 480 00:40:44,447 --> 00:40:47,644 So because of the brittIeness you have aII these cracks. 481 00:40:48,567 --> 00:40:50,762 When they started to deveIop pIastics, 482 00:40:51,087 --> 00:40:54,762 they thought that they had soIved a Iot of probIems for eternity. 483 00:40:55,247 --> 00:41:00,799 And then, reaIIy, after a very short time, they found out that that is not so. 484 00:41:03,847 --> 00:41:05,963 Just when the future finally arrived, 485 00:41:06,647 --> 00:41:09,639 people realised it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. 486 00:41:11,687 --> 00:41:15,680 PIastic started to go bad at the end of '60s in the popuIar imagination, 487 00:41:15,727 --> 00:41:18,480 and peopIe started to taIk about ''a pIastic worId''. 488 00:41:18,527 --> 00:41:21,963 We don't want to Iive in a pIastic worId. We don't want to be pIastic peopIe. 489 00:41:22,007 --> 00:41:24,805 Those words, those phrases became commonpIace. 490 00:41:25,207 --> 00:41:27,198 PIastic that had been a great saviour 491 00:41:27,247 --> 00:41:31,286 and had become the symboI, in many ways, of a modern post-war worId, 492 00:41:31,327 --> 00:41:34,922 now was going to be consigned to the rubbish dump. 493 00:41:35,967 --> 00:41:37,958 (Air hisses) 494 00:41:39,527 --> 00:41:43,156 SocioIogists were very worried that contemporary Iife 495 00:41:43,207 --> 00:41:46,517 and contemporary reIationships were becoming more and more fIeeting, 496 00:41:46,567 --> 00:41:49,604 and that pIastic as a materiaI was somehow a metaphor 497 00:41:49,647 --> 00:41:53,162 for this transient mobiIe IifestyIe we were aII encountering, 498 00:41:53,767 --> 00:41:58,124 where nobody reaIIy cared too much about the quaIity of their reIationships. 499 00:42:01,247 --> 00:42:07,117 ln the decades after the war, much of the world had felt unprecedented faith in the future. 500 00:42:09,127 --> 00:42:12,278 Design had embodied this promise of progress, 501 00:42:12,967 --> 00:42:15,197 and had aimed to liberate us all. 502 00:42:17,047 --> 00:42:21,837 But by the early '70s, optimism about the future had ebbed away. 503 00:42:23,447 --> 00:42:29,283 Along with it went any excitement about the materials and designs of the post-war period. 504 00:42:51,887 --> 00:42:55,880 Nearly 40 years later, a French factory is about to make another chair. 505 00:43:00,167 --> 00:43:02,158 Plastic balls in one end, 506 00:43:03,927 --> 00:43:05,918 finished furniture out the other. 507 00:43:06,847 --> 00:43:08,838 No assembly required. 508 00:43:11,247 --> 00:43:15,479 They spit out a chair every 40, 60 seconds. 509 00:43:24,447 --> 00:43:25,926 It goes vrrt vrrt vrrt, 510 00:43:25,967 --> 00:43:29,198 and they piIe up and there you go. 511 00:43:32,927 --> 00:43:35,964 This is the perfection of the injection moulding process 512 00:43:36,007 --> 00:43:38,965 pioneered by Robin Day and Verner Panton. 513 00:43:39,767 --> 00:43:44,363 The Monobloc chair is formed from a single seamless piece of plastic. 514 00:43:49,487 --> 00:43:52,047 Each costs barely �2 to make. 515 00:43:53,287 --> 00:43:57,360 Versions are manufactured by dozens of different companies all over the world. 516 00:43:57,407 --> 00:44:00,444 There's no patent on the design or the process. 517 00:44:01,607 --> 00:44:04,280 And they're found absolutely everywhere. 518 00:44:05,487 --> 00:44:09,924 Some say there is as many chairs as there is peopIe on this pIanet. 519 00:44:13,287 --> 00:44:15,881 lt's become the ''Zelig'' of the designed world. 520 00:44:16,647 --> 00:44:18,922 Wherever you look, there it is. 521 00:44:19,887 --> 00:44:22,481 From Buckingham Palace to Baghdad. 522 00:44:24,167 --> 00:44:26,840 lt's the fulfilment of post-war design dreams - 523 00:44:28,327 --> 00:44:30,397 functional, versatile, 524 00:44:30,447 --> 00:44:32,438 mass produced and cheap. 525 00:44:34,647 --> 00:44:39,801 All that's missing is the amazement it would have inspired in earlier generations. 526 00:44:42,007 --> 00:44:44,396 On the one hand, it is so hugeIy successfuI. 527 00:44:45,127 --> 00:44:48,005 On the other hand, no-one reaIIy Iikes it. 528 00:44:48,487 --> 00:44:50,478 PeopIe IiteraIIy hate it. 529 00:45:02,887 --> 00:45:06,766 When you Iook at something Iike this now it just becomes synonymous with IandfiII. 530 00:45:06,807 --> 00:45:09,844 You see them aII at your IocaI refuse tip, piIed sky high. 531 00:45:09,887 --> 00:45:12,082 And they're not broken, they don't reaIIy break, 532 00:45:12,127 --> 00:45:14,083 but peopIe just tire of them. 533 00:45:14,127 --> 00:45:15,845 The thing is about this chair 534 00:45:15,887 --> 00:45:19,277 and the reason why it's been so successfuI in its miIIion different guises 535 00:45:19,327 --> 00:45:21,841 is that it actuaIIy does perform pretty weII. 536 00:45:21,887 --> 00:45:24,799 It's an armchair, it's probabIy quite comfortabIe, 537 00:45:25,887 --> 00:45:28,447 it's incredibIy cheap to produce, 538 00:45:28,487 --> 00:45:29,840 it stacks. 539 00:45:29,887 --> 00:45:33,038 And so it's actuaIIy not as dumb as it Iooks. 540 00:45:33,087 --> 00:45:36,966 It's not an attractive-Iooking piece but it's an incredibIy functionaI thing. 541 00:45:45,607 --> 00:45:49,839 All around us is the stuff that post-war dreams were made of. 542 00:45:50,687 --> 00:45:55,556 And much of it is still made from the material, which just like bronze and iron before it, 543 00:45:55,607 --> 00:45:57,199 defined an age. 544 00:45:58,807 --> 00:46:00,718 If you think about our generation, 545 00:46:00,767 --> 00:46:03,406 our contemporary worId in archaeoIogicaI terms, 546 00:46:03,447 --> 00:46:05,517 what wiII be Ieft? It wiII be pIastic. 547 00:46:12,767 --> 00:46:18,000 We Iive in a totaIIy pIastic worId, a worId transformed by pIastic. 548 00:46:19,527 --> 00:46:22,325 It's just that we can't see it any more, it's not so visibIe. 549 00:46:22,367 --> 00:46:26,838 It's woven into everyday objects, everyday structures from architecture to textiIes. 550 00:46:27,727 --> 00:46:30,719 PIastic is no Ionger an object of optimism. 551 00:46:36,287 --> 00:46:39,996 Plastic is ''ubiquity made visible'', according to Barthes. 552 00:46:41,607 --> 00:46:43,996 The philosopher, rather than the Simpson. 553 00:46:45,647 --> 00:46:50,596 He calls it ''the first magical substance that consents to be banal''. 554 00:46:55,807 --> 00:47:01,165 But, for a particular type of person, plastic remains miraculous. 555 00:47:03,847 --> 00:47:08,762 Life without pIastic for an industriaI designer is aImost unimaginabIe. 556 00:47:09,687 --> 00:47:12,155 We aImost think in terms of pIastic. 557 00:47:12,807 --> 00:47:15,844 Because, with pIastic, we can do aImost anything, 558 00:47:15,887 --> 00:47:21,200 and the frontiers of what's possibIe with pIastic are moving outwards aII the time 559 00:47:21,247 --> 00:47:23,238 affording new possibiIities. 560 00:47:25,047 --> 00:47:29,199 I don't use wood, stone and Ieather 561 00:47:29,247 --> 00:47:32,319 because I have not a Iot of respect for these materiaIs, 562 00:47:32,367 --> 00:47:34,801 because I Iove pIastic. 563 00:47:36,807 --> 00:47:40,117 Our civiIisation is based on inteIIigence 564 00:47:40,167 --> 00:47:43,637 and pIastic is pure human inteIIigence. 51684

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