Erwan Bouroullec on all things chairs, including his ‘dynamic’ new design for Vitra

'There are chairs – and there are chairs.' These are the words of Erwan Bouroullec, a French designer who knows a thing or two about making seating. For him, a chair should embody movement, lightness, transparency, comfort, elegance – and a sense of welcoming, like a ‘companion’.

These qualities are written into the DNA of two new chairs designed by Bouroullec. ‘Mynt’ is launched globally this week by Vitra (21 March 2025), with a design that proposes a ‘new way of sitting’, in offices, public spaces and homes.

A modern reimagining of ergonomics fused with an essential elegance, ‘Mynt’ has specially patented technology, with separate components for the seat and back enabling fluid movement while the user is seated – ‘like a cat’. It’s the culmination of 25 years of collaborating with Vitra and his first solo chair design for the Swiss company since creatively parting ways from his brother Ronan.

The ‘Arba’ lounge chair, designed by Bouroullec for Copenhagen-based Raawii, has also just made its Japanese debut. ‘Arba’ is clean and contemporary, its composition rooted in two moulded plywood elements, a cross of bent metal profiles and a die-cast base.

Here, Bouroullec shares with Wallpaper* his thoughts on all things chairs – from form and function to his new creative chapter – during a conversation that unfolds while we are both seated on his new ‘Mynt’ chairs in Vitra’s Tokyo office.

Erwan Bouroullec on all things chairs

Wallpaper*: Tell me about ‘Mynt’.

Erwan Bouroullec: You’re sitting on it right now. If you push more on your back – see, it moves with your body. It’s part of a new generation of chairs. There are chairs – and there are chairs. Most convenient and elegant chairs belong to an older definition of chairs that do not move. Office chairs often have amazing ergonomics, but are diminished by the look – a slightly machine world. Here, we’re trying to embed the best ergonomy with a super-high level of elegance. For me it is a lifetime’s achievement. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.

W*: It’s very comfortable.

EB: The back rest and the seat are unconnected – so your body is almost surfing, slightly moving. It has a newly created mechanism so it works for any size of person. A chair that allows your body to move is key. Like a cat, all day moving and exercising. Often, I see these cool-looking wooden chairs – but what happens to your body after hours of working? This is a very dynamic chair with no compromise in terms of elegance. In my point of view, if a chair is not elegant, it will not be comfortable. This one has fucking good comfort.

W*: What was the seed of this chair?

EB: The question of ergonomics has been rising and rising – and Vitra has been at the core of this research. The starting point of this chair was to embed all this knowledge about bodies and people and movement – but in an environment that would welcome people through its elegance. I was a baby designer when I first entered Vitra 25 years ago in 2000. They have been a mentor to a large part of my design practice. It is a lot of pleasure to release this chair.

W*: How do you create this dialogue between body and chair and make it feel welcoming?

EB: The language of a chair can create a feeling of welcomeness – or stress. How do you welcome a person? One super-important ingredient is making it transparent, so people can understand it and its structure. Like the way your brain sees something vertical with branches and processes it as a tree – a chair needs to be transparent in the expression of its structure, so you quickly recognise it. And behind the transparency, elegance is key.

W*: How do you define elegance?

EB: It’s well-proportioned curves. It’s a way of achieving a lot with a certain lightness. It is a kind of smartness. In terms of clothing, for a long time in my life I didn’t wear suits. When I started to wear them 20 years ago, I just thought, fuck, they are incredibly efficient. There are so many pockets everywhere. They are super nice. And elegant.

W*: It also feels gently dynamic.

EB: It’s gently dynamic but due to its elegance it can go anywhere. Sometimes I’m totally scared by highly decorated spaces with very uncomfortable furniture. For me, this kind of style is really clustering people. If you are wealthy and healthy and everything is OK in your life, that’s fine. But if you have tiny weaknesses – you don’t feel at ease or you don’t like your body at some point, maybe due to surgery, an injury or just life – then maybe that empty chic environment can be too hard for you.

W*: How have your ideas evolved since starting with Vitra in 2000?

EB: Now I wish to perform a little bit more. I feel as a mature designer, I have passed the time when I was younger and I was fascinated by my own creativity and the creativity I had with Ronan. I don't think I want to surprise people. Now I don't really like the word creation in a way.

W*: Why is that?

EB: Because I think there are more things to solve than to invent. Now, it’s more important to practice design and inform manufacturing in a better way. Because behind manufacturing, there are so many issues that are fundamental in our world – about resources, conception. We are in a culture in which people understand manufacturing less and less, understand the logic behind producing a good product less and less. This is the worst time for us to understand less and less. It’s now more important to make sure objects are performing – and that people can easily read them and maintain them. This to me is more important than creating something new. Maybe because of the split from Ronan, I am more grounded. Now, the focus is on being creative in solving problems. Using my creative energy to address an identified question, not for the sake of the creation itself.

W*: And your relationship with Vitra?

EB: We are more and more bound – it’s a symmetrical relationship. I have been learning from them and they have been learning from me. This chair is 100 per cent co-created in a way. The design was trying to re-express a part of the core competence of the company.

W*: This is the first product you’ve designed for Vitra without Ronan?

EB: Me and Ronan, we split because we had too much creative energy. Somehow, we never wanted to control the creative energy, to the point where we ended up with fire in the energy. There was a creation connected to a certain fame – which became fuel for some extra amounts of energy, but part of it was also burning and destroying the relationship. So we really needed to let it go.

W*: How different is your creative process as a result?

EB: For a while we were on separate projects within the same studio but we were always referring to one another in a way. It was a little forbidden to use intuition. When you refer to one another, you need to show the vision – and I don't really envision the end goal, more the nature of the practice, the rules to set the perimetres. I guess this is what has been changing for me and possibly him. I can really now enter into some projects that need permanent readjustment – because you discover that at some point, you need to use your intuition. There was a kind of burning energy between me and Ronan that was not fitting with this process.

W*: So it's a new creative chapter?

EB: It is definitely. It was needed, unfortunately. We went too far into creative fireworks. It’s an intense dynamic when everything is linked. Right now I’m happy with some release. I really think we are in a time in which we absolutely need to perform with true lightness.

W*: You’ve also designed ‘Arba’ for Raawii. Can you sum up it up in three words?

EB: Happy. Raw. Comfort.

W*: What are its defining features?

EB: It’s a lounge chair that is very easy to read. First, a star base on the floor, then a central steel bone that distributes the seat and the backrest; some black silent blocks attach the shells to the bone offering strength but also flexibility. Then, a very prominent zipper outlining the shells is also one of the simplest methods to solve the upholstery in a sober manner. So it’s kind of positively raw, a little like a simple tool can be: very understandable, therefore very comforting.

W*: How do you feel when you sit on it?

EB: ‘Arba’ is dynamic, the central bone is kind of firm but very responsive to the body posture, it’s bending and springs back, so the chair is always moving. This is good for people, who can instinctively adjust the chair to their mood.

W*: What kind of role has Japan played in your creative journey?

EB: It’s very important. I first visited when I was 22 or 23. Ronan and I were designing a shop in Paris for Issey Miyake. I came on my own to show Mr Miyake the project. I was especially young but Mr Miyake was incredibly respectful of my age. I think he liked the fact I didn’t understand Japanese culture. I’m always fascinated by Japan. But often, I’m also afraid.

W*: What are you afraid of?

EB: I’m afraid of getting lost in the street. I’m afraid of not doing the right thing. I really enjoy Japan as a visitor – but I could never live here. I always make things fall, I’m clumsy. My family says I am also socially clumsy.

W*: What inspires you in Japan?

EB: If you look at European culture in terms of objects, architecture, fashion, most things older than 100 years are heavily decorated and belong to ideas of old monarchies and the bourgeois. Particularly in Catholic countries, objects are over-carved, over-printed, over-decorated, over everything. Then, to discover, Japanese traditional objects – the pure minimum, the transparency – it is just a total relief. To discover so many signs of culture based on the hyper minimum was a pure relief.

Erwan Bouroullec's ‘Mynt’ chairs for Vitra will be available to purchase on 21 March 2025

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