Luxembourg Chairs

We ran into a Swedish architect the other day who is visiting and studying in Paris.  She asked us where we were living, and we said that we were adjacent to the Luxembourg Gardens.  "The chairs," she said, "I am studying the chairs.  It is extraordinary that they provide these movable chairs."

I had, of course, noticed the distinctive sage green powder-coated steel chairs in the Luxembourg Gardens many times, and had even noticed the same chairs (maybe knock-offs, often different colors) in many other parks and public spaces.  (I think there are some on MIT's campus.). But I had not thought carefully about them until the architect's remarks:  how extraordinary they must have been when they were first introduced, how they change the aesthetics and functionality of the park, what they can tell us about how the park is used.  

I found out that they were first introduced to the Luxembourg Gardens in 1923, commissioned especially for that purpose by the French Senat.  They have undergone modest redesigns but have retained their basic shape and style since then.  And, yes, the French firm that produces them sells similar ones worldwide.  (I checked--they're pricey.). 

I went to the Gardens early in the morning recently to walk Sandy and take a closer look at the chairs.  Most of them were still empty at that hour, but offered a sort of ghostly picture of the gatherings that had been ongoing in the park the previous evening at closing time.  People had moved the chairs to accommodate solo contemplations, intimate tete-a-tetes, and large gatherings.  I imagined the conversations and activities that might have been taking place--perhaps a couple visiting Paris for the first time and enjoying an ice cream cone with a view of the octagonal pond, or a choral ensemble taking advantage of the beautiful weather to have an outdoor rehearsal, or a single person out walking her dog and deciding to take a break to catch up on her reading.   

Below, Sandy is looking at an arrangement where the armless chairs were used as footrests for the lounge chairs, Adirondack-chair-style.

It is remarkable to see how the moveable chairs enable such a richness of uses and activities, many of which would have been precluded if all they had was a bunch of benches bolted to the ground.