Design
Toran and Aalamb from HOF ‘s collection strike the ideal balance between form and function
JAN 31, 2022 | By Twinkle Tolani
Spearheaded by Mann Singh, an alumnus of the prestigious National Institute of Design and 2009 and 2010 EDIDA India awardee, HOF, a chair designing and manufacturing company, delivers comfort and style in effortless coordination.
The brand has been a pioneer in ergonomically designed office furniture for over 35 years. For its entire tenure, HOF has been consistent with the quality and brevity of its creations. Ranging from professional chairs such as revolving chairs to functionally designed student chairs, HOF’s world-class furniture designers and artists undertake in-depth analysis, meticulous research and development at the brand’s design studio.
If it was assumed that HOF meddles only in professional chair design, the brand’s venture into accent chairs shall pleasantly surprise. Two of its eclectic accent chair collections include Toran and Aalamb. Both sport bright upholstery and delightfully peculiar frames.
The instant one thinks of a ‘frame’ in design, structural devices to construct something solid like a building or a bridge paint a picture in our minds. The frames of Toran and Aalamb, metaphorically and literally, are also devices that come in handy for constructing thoughts and ideas, sometimes for even holding them.
Toran employs the frame as a multi-faceted component. It stands as the dominant visual characteristic and as a bold yet simple structural device. Its straightforward form brings to the fore, the proficient use of material and visible details.
The piece transforms the idea of framing from a succinct structural visual to an experience where the contours of a seat warmly embrace the body, which counterpoints the angularity of the wooden frame. The frame itself, while appearing quite substantial reveals itself to be quite slender using careful craftsmanship in its construction.
Next in line, Aalamb is a celebration of right angles and straight lines in the built environment. The ordinary hides its charms in plain sight, and those charms are considerable.
Aalamb is the result of the appreciation of the ‘extra’ in extraordinary in aesthetics and experience. Abandoning the right-angled constraint to design a comfortable armchair is what consigns this anomalous beauty that resembles a gazelle caught mid-leap as it races across the grasslands in summer.
The chair interacts with its graceful intersections. The tactile joinery and play of surfaces and edges on the armrest are intriguing and invite the sitter’s fingers to glide across its surface.
