The catalogue for Frama Permanent Collection includes interesting quotations and some short comments or statements that hint at the ethos of the studio and stress the use of natural materials and the ‘simple geometries’ of the designs ‘resulting in a uniquely warm and honest aesthetic’.

Photographs show the furniture in stark and simple interiors so in a strongly defined space but not in an obvious room to blur any sense of a specific place.

The full catalogue has simple, neat, useful, outline drawings and basic information about designers and materials and dimensions but not, significantly, the date of the design. Presumably, it is called the Permanent Collection because the intention is to remove any sense of a specific time.

My impression is that, having brought together a substantial body of work, Frama will now add to or edit this collection with well-measured discernment.

There are four sections in the catalogue with:

ESSENTIALS
described as "utilitarian pieces" that includes the hall-mark, metal-framed, stools by Toke Lauridsen; the low aml stool in wood by Andreas Martin-Löf; benches; Chair 01 by Frama; a daybed; Shelf Library by Kim Richardt; box units in aluminium by Jonas Trampedach and the round and the rectangular trestle tables by Frama Studio. These are the key pieces.

SIGNATURE
pieces are marked out for their ‘extra sophisticated appearance’ and for more challenging and demanding knowledge for manufacture including the Skeleton 021 Chair designed by Elding Oscarsen Architects and the Triangolo Chair by Per Holland Bastrup

HOME GOODS
are ceramics - robust glazed stoneware by Frama Studio - and glassware for the table from 0405 Glass with some kitchen to table pieces such as cutting boards

LIGHTING
is distinct and a very interesting range of pendant lights, free standing spots and a take on the strip light and all with simple, but clever and elegant, geometric shapes in brass or copper, polished steel or aluminium and powder-coated steel or powder-coated aluminium

The Apothecary Collection and the free-standing units of Frama Studio Kitchen are dealt with separately but can all be seen on the Frama site

FRAMA - the apartment

FRAMA Permanent Collection

❝ This print is a glimpse into our universe where surfaces, tactility, materials, patina, structures, forms, shapes, lines are being explored and the outcome is the culture of Frama. These things are introduced to the world with the pure intention of Permanency - to become future vintage. ❞

If the corona virus means that you are in lock down - in social isolation at home - the end of the crisis may seem to be a very long way in the future but surely we should not let it stop us day dreaming.

Fritz Hansen have just released their new catalogue and it's available now on line.

There are the room settings for the furniture that we now take for granted but they seem to have a slightly different style …. something more of the 1950s or 1960s. Maybe that is the colour tone of the photographs that seems to be moving towards that distinctive look of Kodak Ektachrome or maybe it’s because some of the models are wearing what look frighteningly like trouser suits or flares.

Of course there is the traditional catalogue of all the furniture but it looks as if all colour options are shown rather than simply listed under a single photograph and this fits with the policy from Fritz Hansen for releasing classic designs in new colours. Those colours seem to be following the current and distinct move from white walls and pale wood to much stronger colours.

the new Fritz Hansen catalogue