Tuesday, November 02, 2004


Everybody has played with matchsticks at some point in their childhood and been fascinated by all that one can do with identical sticks. This was certainly the case for the Danish furniture designer Per Borre, but for him the fascination with the identical elements has only grown with age. A good example of this is Astral, the masterpiece he designed in 1979. The bench, which has taken the world by storm and won a stack of prizes, was inspired by the identical shape of matchsticks and the idea of reusing the same elements.

Astral is semi-circular in shape and in all its simplicity it is constructed from just two different elements: 107 identical vertical elements and 106 identical horizontal elements, which constitute the seat. However, the most amazing feature of this beautiful bench is that it neither has feet nor does it need to be fastened to the ground. It bears itself thanks to the semi-circle formed by the unique construction.

Astral is crafted in Denmark by Fredericia Furniture and distributed exclusively in North America by Hightower Group.

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