To call Verner Panton’s Welle series “lounge furniture” is almost an understatement. Like so much
else of Panton’s extensive oeuvre, these wildly imaginative organic forms land like a colourful bomb
in the sleepy world of traditional contract furniture – and leave us anything but indifferent.
Panton first displayed the Welle series at the forward-thinking Visiona exhibition back in 1969
alongside the Fun lamp and Cloverleaf sofa, other visionary Panton works that have long since
entered the cannon of contemporary design.
what’s the STORY?
Why Welle never went into series production remains something of a mystery. Maybe the cold foam
technology of the day wasn’t ready for such massive forms. Perhaps Welle got lost in the visual orgy
that was Visiona, next to so many other soon-to-be Panton classics. It could also be that the design
itself was simply ahead of its time. At any rate, VERPAN jumped at the chance when the Panton
estate agreed that the time for Welle is finally here in 2014.
WELLE truely are some of the most organic forms Panton ever created for the lounge.
