"Furniture's ingredients have changed mostly for the better" says Bruce Hannah

Moving manufacturing back to major cities and updating old designs with new materials should be priorities for design in the US, industrial designer Bruce Hannah tells Dezeen in this interview.

Speaking with Dezeen, Hannah mourned the loss of furniture manufacturers from America's big cities compared with when he was starting his career after graduating from Pratt Institute in the 1960s.

"New York was filled with small manufacturing companies, which was a boon to young designers trying to figure out how to make stuff," he said.

"Big companies like the middle of nowhere because it's cheap, but maybe not conducive to creating community."

"Certain types of furniture could be manufactured locally"

Hannah had huge successes with the Morrison Hannah Task Chair and Hannah Desk System, both produced by Knoll, and was later chair of the Pratt Institute's Industrial Design Department for three decades up to 2015.

In order to allow the creative talent in major urban centres to flourish, argues Hannah, the design industry must work out how to "make stuff in New York City again".

Hannah pointed to architectural hardware company PE Gerwin in Greenwich Village – the only foundry in New York – as proof that it is possible.

"I'm envisioning small to medium-sized factories producing products that require minimal handling, such as trash cans, soap holders, et cetera, that can be injection-molded and shipped locally," he said.

"I also think certain types of furniture could be manufactured locally."

Changing production models in this way will enable design students to gain important hands-on experience of how things get made, he added, particularly as it gets harder to make a living in the field.

"Ultimately, I'm interested in getting people jobs," said Hannah.

Since departing from Pratt, Hannah has taken a teaching position at New York City Tech, where he said he has been prioritising engineering over art learning in his approach to industrial design.

Hannah was speaking on the occasion of Knoll's revamp of the Morrison Hannah Task Chair, which he designed and prototyped in New York with long-time collaborator Andrew Morrison in the 1970s.

The new chair is almost identical in form, but has plywood instead of plastic for the seat supports, and was designed, according to Hannah, with a focus on cradle-to-cradle design principles, with replaceable parts.

"If you think of designs as recipes and the components as ingredients, then the 2024 chair is better than the 1973 chair because we have better ingredients," said Hannah.

"And we understand the ramifications, environmentally and manufacturing-wise, of the choices we made and make. In other words, we can make more informed and better choices now based on real data gathered in the last 50 years," he continued.

"The recipe hasn't changed, but the ingredients have, mostly for the better."

"I don't know how anybody can figure out the competition"

Today, the yearly launches from big-name American furniture brands include many of these reissues. For example, Herman Miller recently unveiled an Eames Chair made with bamboo-derived upholstery.

Hannah noted that when Morrison and Hannah cold-called Knoll in the 1970s to pitch their designs, famous mid-century designers such as George Nelson and the Eameses were still practising.

"It was a very different world, but it seemed unattainable," he said. "At the time, we had nothing, less than nothing. Our philosophy was: let's sell it to Knoll and retire."

What clinched the commission, he said, was having an emphasis on a different approach, such as designing a chair based on how it looks from the bottom.

"We had this idea about a new way to make furniture," he said. "And that really was the conversation always."

Today, Hannah emphasised the challenges young designers face in distinguishing themselves in a field where "there are so many chairs".

"I don't even know how anybody can figure out the competition," he said.

As well as gaining greater understanding of the manufacturing process, Hannah said that storytelling and entrepreneurship have become focus points in his approach.

"People are looking at you, not necessarily the product," he said.

"Industrial design is kind of an entrepreneurial place, a business, and a lot of people want to be their own boss."

"The story has always been the most interesting part of design to me," he continued.

"One of the reasons Andy and I wanted to work with Knoll, besides the obvious ones, was the stories we heard about how the classic furniture designs were created and manufactured – how Marcel Breuer saw a chair in bicycle handlebars, etc."

This narrative element has grown even more stark in an era where designers are expected to represent themselves on social media. Even Hannah's campaign for Knoll features the designer sitting in the recreated chair.

Nevertheless, Hannah has not lost his faith in the ability of designers to come up with great new ideas.

"In spite of all of the pragmatism and economic things and everything else, I am shocked constantly by these lovely things that just pop up, you know?"

The photography is courtesy of Knoll.

Dezeen In Depth

If you enjoy reading Dezeen's interviews, opinions and features, subscribe to Dezeen In Depth. Sent on the last Friday of each month, this newsletter provides a single place to read about the design and architecture stories behind the headlines.

The post "Furniture's ingredients have changed mostly for the better" says Bruce Hannah appeared first on Dezeen.