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.