How a classic is born.

In the 1950s, India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, commissioned Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, also known as Le Corbusier, to design a master plan for a new, utopian city called Chandigarh. 

Recognizing that the city's groundbreaking architecture would need to be furnished with pieces that were in line with his vision, Le Corbusier enlisted the help of his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, to create the city's furniture, including a chair that would later become known as the Chandigarh chair. 

Jeanneret designed the chair to be mass-produced, using inexpensive Burma Teak that was resistant to both the humidity and the bug population of the area. He also designed the process for making the chair, knowing that India's woodworkers didn't have the same tools and machinery as their European counterparts. 

The chair's simple design allowed it to be made with just one piece of machinery, a table saw. By combining local labor with hand tools like hand-planers and chisels, Jeanneret created a classic piece that would go on to become an icon of design. 

Chandigarh, which was mostly completed by the early 1960s, fell out of favor by the 1980s, and Jeanneret's modern designs, including the Committee chairs, were being replaced with furniture that was considered more fashionable. However, in the early 1990s, furniture dealers such as Eric Touchaleaume, Francois Laffanour, Phillipe Jousse, and Patrick Seguin saw value in Jeanneret's discarded chairs. They bought up a number of the original pieces. 

Since then, Jeanneret's chair has been revived and recognized globally as an iconic piece of design, favored by acclaimed aesthetes like Belgian interior designer Axel Vervoordt and French architect Joseph Dirand. 

Today, Chandigarh is considered one of the few master-planned cities in the world that has succeeded, and the iconic legacy of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret lives on in these chairs. 

The original pieces still in Chandigarh are not allowed to leave India without approval from the country's Ministry of Culture, and Jeanneret chairs in both original and restored condition still attract record prices at auction and adorn the homes of renowned designers and celebrities like Kourtney Kardashian.

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It’s very satisfying for us to be able to bring back to life such an iconic piece. We have taken the time, patience, and love to recreate Pierre’s Jeannerete vision of a chair that is meant to withstand time and trends. 

Look forward to our next email to learn more about materials, weave, and fabric choices available for the upcoming release of JST club.