Between Chairs

The postgraduate research programme Bauhaus Lab took the India Lounge or 24/42 Chair as the starting point for a study of transcultural design discourses between the Ulm School of Design (1953 – 1968) and the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad (founded in 1961). Although the original chair unfortunately went missing, what has been discovered extends far beyond its materiality. The researchers uncovered people, networks, and advanced educational theories that paint a detailed picture of the transcultural landscape of the 1960s. The chair symbolizes the vibrant international debates about what constitutes a socially responsible designer, as well as the radical pedagogies of the two design schools associated with it.