GUBI reissues two mid-century design classics

It was with much excitement that I headed to London this week for a return visit to GUBI House. Perfectly placed within its elegant Clerkenwell setting, this Grade-II-listed, Georgian townhouse is filled from top to bottom with many of my favourite Nordic designs. But on this occasion, it was the reissue of two mid-century classics by Frenchman, Pierre Paulin, I was here to see.

Originally created in the late 1960s, the boundary-breaking F300 Lounge Chair, and its accompanying T877 Side Table, were at the time unlike anything that had been released before. Futuristic, but functional too, both designs quickly became icons of their age, with the F300 now part of the permanent collections of several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Centre Pompidou.

Today, just like their fellow Paulin design, the Pacha Chair, which was also reissued by GUBI in 2018, both products still look completely of the moment. But, where the former is soft, fluffy, and cloud-like, the hammock-like F300 and striking T877 both have a more fearless and expressive form.

And, with little documentation remaining of how they were actually made, GUBI have worked tirelessly with the designer’s son Benjamin Paulin, who acts as a steward of his father’s design legacy, to ensure the curvilinear frame and cushioned upholstery has been recreated to preserve the original vision.

There has however been one significant change, that even the purest design fans will be glad to see, and that’s the fibreglass and polyurethane have now been replaced with a new eco-friendly material called HiREK. An engineered polymer made from industrial plastic waste, pellets are first injected into moulds and pressed into their final forms, before every element is sensitively and carefully refined by hand.

Working just as well as standalone statement pieces or combined with others, both pieces come in ‘Alabaster White’ and a gorgeously soft ‘Pastel Green’, while the T877 is also available in ‘Violet Ice’, ‘Honey Gold’, and ‘Molé’. Oozing with the casual, comfort-led aesthetics of the 1970s we’ve seen making a return to our interiors of late, I for one can vouch for just how comfortable the F300 is, and know if I had one at home there would certainly be arguments as to whose turn it was to sit in it.