In science fiction films, design classics such as Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Chair act as links between the future and the present. However, design history also shows that designers have always been inspired by new technologies. The Vitra Design Museum is dedicating a special exhibition to the dialogue between science fiction and design.
When directors of science fiction films envision the future, they create worlds that no one has ever seen in this form before. However, to draw viewers into these unknown environments, the connection to the real world must not be entirely lost. Often, it is familiar objects, including design classics, that serve as links between the new and the familiar. Because even the most absurd world remains connected to reality to some extent if it features an armchair on which one might have already sat.
Eero Aarnio, Pallo / Ball Chair, 1963, © Vitra Design Museum, Photo: Andreas Sütterlin
For example, in the 2010 film »Tron: Legacy«, it is the Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe and the Eames Lounge Chair that subtly establish a connection between past and future. In short: film directors and set designers are aware that design classics can act as gateways to previously unknown worlds. Conversely, many designers are also inspired by the environments and technologies depicted in science fiction films. After all, it is also their job to imagine the future – to give it a form that is forward-looking, yet simultaneously anchored in the present.
Eero Aarnio, Tomato Chair, 1971, © Vitra Design Museum, Photo: Roland Engerisser
Thus, it was primarily the so-called Space Age, which began with the launch of Sputnik 1 in October 1957, that brought forth a surge of furniture in which the intense engagement with space travel was clearly reflected. Designers such as Gae Aulenti, Eero Aarnio, Luigi Colani, Joe Colombo, or Verner Panton designed furniture and living landscapes that looked futuristic with their organic forms and shiny plastic surfaces, while fundamentally rethinking living and housing habits of that time.
Still image from the film set of Star Trek, 1968, © CBS Photo Archive, via Vitra Design Museum
Influenced by the rapid developments in space travel, designers in turn began to create furniture that seamlessly integrated into the science fiction films of that era. In Stanley Kubrick’s »2001: A Space Odyssey«, Olivier Mourgue’s Djinn Chair became a screen star, while Eero Aarnio’s Tomato Chair perfectly fit into the world of »Men in Black«. In the 1960s series »Star Trek«, Eero Saarinen’s Tulip Chair can be seen.
Marc Newson Orgone Chair, 1993, © Vitra Design Museum, Photo: Jürgen Hans
However, the dialogue between science fiction and design continued in the following decades. Again and again, design icons conquered the cinema screens, including Orgone Chair‘s Marc Newson in the 2012 film »Prometheus«, but also unexpected design objects like Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Argyle Chair in the 1982 blockbuster »Blade Runner«. The extraordinary form of Nemo Chair Fabio Novembre’s, which resembles a classic Venetian theater mask, has also fascinated directors and set designers for many years.
Andrés Reisinger, Hortensia, 2021, © Vitra Design Museum, Photo: Andreas Sütterlin
At the Vitra Design Museum (Schaudepot), the exhibition »Science Fiction Design. From the Space Age to the Metaverse« can be seen until May 10, 2026. The Argentine artist and designer Andrés Reisinger, who himself designs furniture for the Metaverse, has collected 100 collection objects, which he presents on a futuristic stage. The scope ranges from the Space Age to the question of how suitable the Metaverse is as a new space for projections and experiments. Reisinger’s digital dreamscapes, which show clear references to the visual worlds of earlier science fiction films, are also part of the exhibition. [SW]
Header Photo: Andrés Reisinger, The Shipping, Tangled, 2021, © Reisinger Studio
