The now London-based Lurr was born in Kirkuk, Kurdistan and grew up in Sweden. In 2016, while completing her engineering education, she and her brother Dilan Lurr started the now internationally recognized fashion brand Namacheko. Since then, her creative career path has broadened to also include furniture and interior design. She’s now the fourth to be presented in Massproductions’ The Crown Jewels series, where creators have been asked to renew the Swedish furniture brand’s worn-out Crown Armchairs. The result is two interpretations of the chair that explore itself and its possible metamorphosis, where new covers can be taken on and off the original chair body. Lezan Lurr explains that from ancient mythology to modern fiction, shapeshifting has been part of storytelling.
— It is described as a curse, pure witchcraft, and other times as a superpower — this became the starting point for me when working with Crown, she says. I wanted to find a way to give the chairs a new shape but with the constant possibility and playfulness of returning to their original state. This translated into creating cases, which can be taken on and off. In this way, the chairs are introduced into the daily shape-shifting that we engage in when we dress, with the possibility to alternately highlight, play, and discover, alternately hide and return to our self-exploration.
For the first chair, Lurr peeled off layers of foam and fabric, to investigate the bare construction of the chair. The metal skeleton was cleaned by sandblasting. CAD drawings were created over the new shape, and then 12 parts were laser cut into an aluminium sheet, which was welded together.
— I decided to work with the materials that make up the chair’s construction. Crown mainly consists of a metal frame, but also wood that provides support at the bottom, this is then covered with foam and fabric. I wanted to use the materials that form the core of a product we love but which in this case were not visible.
The second chair’s case consists of a through-dyed wood fibre panel, called Valchromat, and consists of four separate parts that slide along the chair’s sides, seat, and backrest. The prototype was created in MDF, but the angles were hard and not very comfortable. Valchromat does not bend naturally but Lezan worked around this by working with thinner sheets. This created a curved backrest for softness and comfort. The four parts were glued and stapled together for a seamless look before the chair was sanded and oiled.
— Lezan’s interpretation makes me think of pictures of Joan of Arc. A noble creature who dresses in armour and gets ready for a tough day at work, says Magnus Elebäck, CEO, Massproductions.
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