Stockholm Furniture Fair 2023: Say Hej! to… Ondulé by Anton Björsing for Karl Andersson & Söner

The high-backed settle has been a furniture object since at least the Middle Ages, if not earlier, and has be re-interpreted numerous times over the centuries; including in the early 2000s by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec who, as far as we recall, introduced with their Alcove for Vitra the concept of the upholstered high-backed settle. A novel understanding of the high-backed settle that very quickly became a popular subject for manufacturers of acoustic furniture, and more gradually a subject for manufacturers of general office furniture, not least as the concept of soft ergonomics became more widely and more forcibly disseminated and insisted upon by those manufacturers. And today the upholstered high-backed settle is one of those objects we intimated in our (brief) introductory post to Stockholm 2023 that near all manufacturers have. Which doesn’t mean they are all the same, although a great many are: there is also Ondulé.

Amongst the aspects that we particularly enjoy about Ondulé is that is, essentially, not only a re-interpretation of the upholstered high-backed settle, but a re-imagining of the Windsor Chair, a work that, as previously opined in these dispatches, can, must, be considered more a framework for chair design than a chair; something Anton Björsing elegantly and effortlessly demonstrates and reinforces in Ondulé through nothing more complicated than weaving felt through the spindles to create the previously unknown, but arguably long required, upholstered high-backed Windsor settle.

An unknown fundamental necessity that, arguably, a Børge Mogensen was well on his way to in 1945 with his Tremmesofaen, Spoke-backed sofa, but never reached, Mogensen leaving the cushions sitting/leaning on his Windsor sofa; which was, arguably, all he could do in 1945, society wasn’t far enough along the helix to know you could weave felt through a Windsor’s spindles.

And an unknown fundamental necessity, a re-imagining, a fusion, of the Windsor and the settle, that results in an object that makes a genuinely very appealing, charming visual statement: it’s a very nice thing to look at. And we can well imagine that its flowing mix of felt and wood in an unforced, non-dogmatic harmony will allow it to bring a lot more character and vitality and visual calm to an office space, or indeed any space, public or private, than those objects that are simply formed from acoustic panels, and all too often have but little to actively add to a space. A space enhancing character, a functionality beyond its utility, aided and abetted by its solidity without mass, its presence without dominance, its desire to, and pleasure in, being off service. And it is also a very, very, nice thing to sit in and on, the wooden spindles rising all around giving the impression less of sitting in a box, as is often the case with such high-backed sofas, and more that one is inhabiting a space. One feels at one with one’s environment. Which again isn’t always the case with high-backed sofas which all too often place the emphasis on function over emotion. As with Alcove Ondulé is very much a work that is there for you, and exists as an extension of your mood at that moment.

And despite the apparent unyielding analogousness of its felt and wood: plugs, and/or USB chargers can be added. As can freely insertable and removable small tables for the double seater, tables which do help break up the space and create two single chairs from a one double. And give you somewhere to place your coffee.

In addition to the high-backed version Ondulé is also available in a standard height armchair and sofa with relatively wide armrests, not unappealing objects, far from it, but in which, for us, the upholstered Windsor isn’t as emotionally functional as it is in the high-backed version. If every bit as graphically and visually appealing.

Ondulé by Anton Björsing for Karl Andersson & Söner, as seen at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2023

Ondulé by Anton Björsing for Karl Andersson & Söner, as seen at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2023

Electricity and a removable table for Ondulé by Anton Björsing for Karl Andersson & Söner, as seen at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2023