New Impulses 
ln an effort to ensure that it keeps up with cur 
rent developments in design, the German 
Thonet Company has repeatedly sought to 
cooperate with internationally renowned or 
aspiring designers in the 21 st Century, includ- 
ing James Irvine, Piero Lissoni, Naoto Fuka- 
sawa, Konstantin Grcic, Stefan Diez and 
Robert Stadler. In recent years, the Czech Com 
pany TON and Gebrüder Thonet Vienna (GTV), 
which is now based in Italy, have tried to 
update their product lines in this way with 
new bentwood furniture-at TON with Lucie 
Koldovä, Eugenia Minerva, Jaroslav Jurica and 
Thomas Feichtner; at GTV with Michele de 
Lucchi, Nigel Coates, Michael Anastassiades, 
Chiara Andreatti and the designer group Front, 
among others. Thereby different strategies 
can be observed, to which belongs-as was 
to be expected-for example a quote-like 
approach to the so-called classics, in which 
new models are created by sampling or the 
recombination of already existing components. 
The attempt to arrive at fundamentally new 
forms, however, usually leads to an almost 
Mannerist exaggeration of the characteristic 
bentwood shapes. At the other end of the 
design scale is the radical reduction, where 
the products often manage without bent 
elements. Rarely, however, are these experi- 
ments based on functional innovations or tech- 
nological progress. 
Lehnstuhl Armchair 
Entwurf Design: Nigel Coates, London, 2014 
Ausführung Execution: Gebrüder Thonet Vienna - 
Wiener Design, Turin, 2019; Buche, massiv 
gebogen; Geflecht Beech, solid bent, cane; 
MAK H 4001/2019; Schenkung Donation 
Gebrüder Thonet Vienna - Wiener Design 
Sessel Chair 002 
Entwurf Design: Jaroslav Jurica, Tschechien 
Czech Republic, 2011 
Ausführung Execution: TON, Bistritz Bystrice, 2011; 
Buche, massiv gebogen, Sperrholz Beech, solid bent, 
plywood; Firmensammlung Company Collection TON