Please Sit

Designer and curator Gitta Gschwendtner joined forces with the National Trust for a design conversation across the centuries, in which six designers unveil striking new seating for historic Fenton House…

Anyone familiar with National Trust properties knows that, more often than not, those antique chairs aren’t for sitting on. After all, if these historic pieces of furniture were subjected to the backsides of the thousands of visitors who pass through every year, it’s unlikely they would last many years longer. In summer 2019, that changed. The National Trust commissioned designer Gitta Gschwendtner to curate a unique design intervention at Fenton House in Hampstead. Under her direction, she and five other artists and designers each responded to a particular aspect of a room in the 17th-century merchant’s house – whether the view, a feature of the interior or an artefact  – by creating a functional seat. These unexpected eruptions of contemporary design encouraged visitors to pause, sit, explore and contemplate. Alongside Gitta’s own contribution, the project featured designs by Michael Marriott, Frith Kerr, Carl Clerkin, Maisie Broadhead and Nina Tolstrup, which will remain in place at Fenton House until May 2020.

Team Zetteler were very excited to work on a project in which past and present collided so intriguingly and alongside such a powerhouse of talent. We threw our full publicity support behind this unusual and engaging design collaboration when it launched during London Design Festival 2019, and have been thrilled to see the response it has had from both the design community public and the wider public.