CHRISTIAN GERMANAZ, Half & Half Armchairs, Airborne Edition, circa 1968
Christian Germanaz (1940–)
Pair of Half & Half armchairs, model designed in 1964, Airborne edition, France.
Restored self-supporting bi-shell structure in orange gel-coated fibreglass with black rubber trim.
W. 77 × D. 68 × H. 68 cm; seat height 40 cm.
Condition report: fibreglass restored and refinished; rubber trim replaced.
8500 €
Available — worldwide shippingAvailable — worldwide shipping
History
The Half & Half armchair, generally dated 1964, was developed by Christian Germanaz in the mid-1960s after he joined Airborne’s design office. Conceived for indoor and outdoor use, particularly in public spaces, it explores the structural potential of plastics. Germanaz made the first mould himself with the help of a neighbouring plasterer.
The design consists of two identical half-shells joined by a rubber trim to form a self-supporting, modular seat. In 1968, with only one half-shell completed, the designer used two mirrors to create the illusion of the finished chair when presenting it to François Barré, then deputy director of the Musée des Arts décoratifs. Impressed, the museum requested a complete example for the exhibition Les Assises du siège contemporain; Germanaz completed the prototype at short notice. Airborne selected the model and produced it in a small series, mainly in orange, grey and black.
Institutional references
- Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris — collection reference for the Half & Half armchair.
- XXO, Paris — documented example available for hire.
- The model has also been documented in major modern-design collections in New York and Chicago.
Bibliography
Dominique Forest (ed.), Mobi Boom: l’explosion du design en France, 1945–1975, exhibition catalogue, Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, 2010.
Christian Germanaz
Born in 1940, Christian Germanaz is a French designer whose work is closely associated with the renewal of furniture at the end of the 1960s. At Airborne, he explored plastics and moulded shells as both structural and expressive elements. His Half & Half chair is distinguished by its radical economy of means: a single repeated component, assembled into an enveloping seat by a contrasting rubber joint.
Germanaz’s approach belongs to a generation that challenged traditional cabinetmaking through industrial materials, modular construction and new domestic uses. The rarity of surviving examples and the clarity of the chair’s construction have made Half & Half an emblematic work of French experimental design.
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