60s Dirk van Sliedregt sofa fauteuil, table, chair set/4

Dirk van Sliedregt was a self-made man who brought it from furniture maker, via furniture designer, interior designer and teacher to academy director. He was a special designer in his time. Teacher who offered his students the space to make special designs themselves. No dictation of design but design from the brains of the student. Van Sliedrecht was particularly versatile.

The image of Van Sliedregt is interwoven with rattan furniture. Due to the 30 year cooperation between Van Sliedregt and the Gebr. Jonkers from Noordwolde.

At the time, the Jonkers company was looking for a designer who could improve the overweight and cumbersome machining of the chairs. When asked, the Institute for Industrial Design (IIV) drew the manufacturer’s attention to Van Sliedregt, which had made an impression with competition designs for demountable and material-saving furniture.

The rest is history; Van Sliedregt came and almost became a family member. Because of his background as a furniture maker, he was close to the practice and there was excellent contact with the rattan weavers who carried out his models. They were satisfied with a full-size drawing, delivered by Van Sliedregt on brown wrapping paper! A method that deviated strongly from what he taught his students.

His feeling for the expressiveness of the material, his famous clear and honest constructions, with a clear distinction between seat and frame, and the successful interaction of machine and handicraft are clearly visible in all his designs, but certainly in rattan products.

The fact that Van Sliedregt designed more than two hundred and fifty tasty furniture in the post-war period, taking into account seating comfort, material scarcity and lack of space, partly explains the success for the Jonkers company. And it also resulted in timeless furniture in rattan.
This set of one sofa, two armchairs and the table is a good example.