Pep Bonet

PEP BONET BERTRAN (Barcelona, 1941).
Pair of Tuman armchairs, 1968.
In black painted steel.
Leather seats.
Armrests upholstered in fabric.
Exhibits wear consistent with age and use.
In need of restoration.
Measurements: 77 x 60 x 100 cm.

The Tuman armchair was designed by Pep Bonet for Levesta and for Bd Ediciones, of which he was founder. In this armchair Bonet is close to the rationalist trend advocated by the Bauhaus and applied by GATEPAC. Thus, his design refers to classic, functional and essential formulations without renouncing formal beauty, combined with an intelligent use of new materials. He started from the need to create a piece of furniture suitable for the spaces he was building, a modern, formally original, comfortable and relatively inexpensive seat. The formal reference for this design is the Tucuman bird, and despite its sinuousness it gives the impression that its structure is composed of a single piece. The large cushion that forms the seat is supported by steel leaf springs, which originally accounted for thirty percent of the production cost, and which give the chair great elasticity and comfort. The original model is upholstered in skai, a symbol of modernity in the sixties and seventies, and in fact the Tuman armchair won Bonet the 1974 design prize in the competition for furniture upholstered in this material at the Spanish Furniture Fair in Valencia.

Pep Bonet Bertran is a Catalan architect and industrial designer. He studied at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona and began his professional career working in the studio of architect Josep Antoni Coderch. He was one of the founding members of Studio Per in 1964. In 1972 he founded, together with Cristian Cirici, Óscar Tusquets, Mireia Riera and Lluís Clotet, the company BD Ediciones de Diseño, which he chaired until 1992. He taught design at the Faculty of Architecture in Barcelona between 1975 and 1978, and also taught at the University of Washington and the Eina School in Barcelona, among other institutions. He has received numerous awards, including the National Restoration Award in 1980. He was president of ADI/FAD between 1990 and 1993. Among his most recognized designs are the Tuman armchair (1969), the Leina springs (1987) and the Catenaria barrier (1986), for which he won a Delta award.