LUCKY
Luka Stepan
Obvious Unusual Familiar
Lucky has grown even more comfy with the new lounge version. The accentuated horizontal
and vertical forms of its sibling are retained along with its generous and spacious proportions.
‘The original Lucky had a certain relaxed feeling about it,’ says Luka Stepan, ’we felt it could
also work in a more causal environment, not only next to a dining table.’ The original as well
as the lounge version is made in traditional materials: oak plywood, upholstered backrest, and
a seat covered in leather or textiles. The sturdy yet flexible chair offers a calculated balance
of proportions with a both open and closed character. ’We have upgraded Lucky thoroughly
with a fully padded seat, contoured backrest, and a more laidback geometry,’ adds Luka
Stepan. Generously evident in all its simplicity, the monochrome colour scheme underlines the
stringent and classical expression, which all together offers an almost ritual seating experience.
‘Plywood was kind of trendy when I studied in London eight years ago,’ explains Luka Stepan,
who runs his studio in Ljubljana, Slovenia. ’I wanted to see if I could achieve a bit of flexibility
in contrast to solid wood. I managed to do this in Lucky by mounting the seat in the front.’
Luka’s design has a distinctly Nordic air along with a keen
interest in smart solutions for new lifestyles. Luka Stepan con-
tinued his studies at the Royal Collage of Art in London, after
graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in
Ljubljana. Under the guidance of professor Ron Arad at RCA,
and working as a freelance designers in the UK for several
renowned London studios among them Tangerine, Luka is
now based with his own design studio in Ljubljana. ‘Why
making yet another chair? Yes, that’s a good question! There
are really way too many chairs in the world, and lots of
them really bad since they don’t last long, not even culturally.
Lucky is made without any compromises and short-cuts, and
while not a cheap chair, it’s actually an investment where
you count on using it for a long time.’
Design that can be improved? Car design obviously; it can’t
just be about styling, can it? It’s not enough that Tesla
challenges the other manufacturers, there’s lot to do: how do
you improve on the interior and how do you interact with all
the electronics at your command? And being in charge of
so much deadly power in the street, how do you develop
the automatic system keeping everything in check? If we will
have driverless cars in a sharing economy, what will they
look like? What kind of sociological and cultural challenges
are we facing?
On your bedside table? In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro
Tanizaki. His essay from 1933 gives a completely different
perspective on the aesthetic of the West and the Far East,
and it’s also a lot about architecture. A chair is a chair, but
how is it used in space, how does objects makes us think
about space? I believe that with all these high-tec digital
solutions we are still extremely connected to the physical
materiality of life, and furniture design carries a lot of culture
with it, it’s really fascinating how much you can put into a
chair like Lucky.
Lucky | 2017
