Posted in Design Stories
Fake vs Real Part I: The Capital Complex
![Capitol Complex Chair Chandigarh Pierre Jeannert](https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Capitol-Complex-Chair-Chandigarh-Pierre-Jeannert.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=2339&s=b34ea84e00fdcb54479a0520e3b64800 2339w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Capitol-Complex-Chair-Chandigarh-Pierre-Jeannert.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1565&s=560aa7132f7d8a412185f4fd0ea7a9ba 1565w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Capitol-Complex-Chair-Chandigarh-Pierre-Jeannert.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1000&s=0c68136b7c89789bc076296c52d19f42 1000w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Capitol-Complex-Chair-Chandigarh-Pierre-Jeannert.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=600&s=66f6e26978b613b87cc31ef0b6ecde9c 600w)
On the surface, there is a certain absurdity in drawing a distinction between real and fake furniture. As physical items we sit and lie on, work at and eat from, our bodily relationship with furniture renders it more material, more real than almost anything else in our lives. So what do we mean by a real piece of furniture, and by contrast, what is a fake?
In the beginning, before an original piece of furniture or design object takes physical shape, there is a particular motivation; a driving force. Most designed objects are responses to the specific conditions of a place, or to the functional requirements of a particular practice. Sometimes, an idea simply grows from curiosity and joy in making.
![Chandigarh Collective](https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Chandigarh_Collective.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=2350&s=771ae35a411f7b49b432e7a683d2070e 2350w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Chandigarh_Collective.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1565&s=65abb32d83c321ab762aae52cbf57806 1565w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Chandigarh_Collective.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1000&s=ead7b94d10811d1b3a81c0f85569bda3 1000w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Chandigarh_Collective.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=600&s=59facf4b78d3a197a2f7bcec33d55c3b 600w)
In 1951, Swiss architect Pierre Jeanneret took on the challenge of designing a furnishing collection for the project he was working on at the time with his cousin, architect Le Corbusier. Together, they were developing the architectural and urban design for the Capitol Complex in the city of Chandigarh in India. Located in the foothills of the Himalayas, the project needed furniture made en-masse that would be locally appropriate, able to be locally manufactured, and climate and bug-resistant. Responding to these requirements, Jeanneret designed a suite of sturdy teak and cane chairs, tables and benches for the formal, geometric interiors. Thousands of these furniture pieces were then hand-made by local artisans, and installed into the vast concrete chambers of the new complex.
![Capitol complex le corbusier chandigarh india benjamin hosking dezeen 936 0](https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/capitol-complex-le-corbusier-chandigarh-india-benjamin-hosking_dezeen_936_0.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=936&s=9ac94bc7f4ebdeb737f6ec7086193f9e 936w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/capitol-complex-le-corbusier-chandigarh-india-benjamin-hosking_dezeen_936_0.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=600&s=6d8284cc4063a967d20d5ce168e576e7 600w)
![Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in Chandigarh India](https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Le-Corbusier-and-Pierre-Jeanneret-in-Chandigarh-India.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=845&s=a0968b6556bbfeb7518469aa277e84e2 845w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Le-Corbusier-and-Pierre-Jeanneret-in-Chandigarh-India.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=600&s=03a76a82a93a8914c600077030f46ffc 600w)
Decades later, when parts of the Capitol Complex fell into disuse or disrepair, thousands of the chairs were left as reminders of the once lively occupation. Discarded, they landed in garbage tips, dispersed across the Indian countryside, far from those original motivations. Being alerted to what was happening from afar, international design connoisseurs made trips to locate, collect and purchase the original pieces. In testament to the durability of the design, many of the discarded chairs remained intact despite their age, requiring only minor restoration to bring them back to original condition.
![Capitol Complex Chair Chandigarh](https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Capitol-Complex-Chair-Chandigarh.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1600&s=e5ff00fe994c27626432f24bf4af5f06 1600w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Capitol-Complex-Chair-Chandigarh.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1565&s=631cf70a3304ffc983af6c8acd17801a 1565w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Capitol-Complex-Chair-Chandigarh.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1000&s=c4934adee42d89fd8811d9796e87bd7f 1000w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Capitol-Complex-Chair-Chandigarh.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=600&s=0e20154cc0f91a8a081d4e82951c0b67 600w)
Since the first exhibitions of these refurbished collections in 2009, the Capitol Complex furniture has had a second life: revered, celebrated and sought-after. The simplicity and honesty of material and form resonate with contemporary design values. And, with their distinctive presence, the hand-crafted chairs seem at home in interiors around the world. In addition to the original teak structure, license-holder Cassina has reissued the collection with new stained and natural oak finishes. Today, some seventy years on from the original inception, it is nearly impossible to browse interior magazines or social media without seeing a cluster of Pierre Jeanneret Capitol Complex chairs.
But there is an undercurrent to this story of renaissance; a dark side to the hyper-popularity of the Capitol Complex chairs. Popularity indicates widespread desire, and capitalizing on that desire is an opportunity for profit. And so, much like in the world of fast-fashion, furniture and object design is increasingly the victim of knock-offs, with a proliferation of fake designer pieces appearing on the market. Fakes are parasitic; their value depends completely on the real pieces. They live off the original design, cling to the aesthetic and brand, and ride the marketing waves.
![Capitol complex chair Pierre Jeanneret for Cassina](https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/capitol-complex-armchair-Pierre-Jeanneret-Cassina-35.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1280&s=5f26498cb8bf88390a4501367294c794 1280w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/capitol-complex-armchair-Pierre-Jeanneret-Cassina-35.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1000&s=fcc44d76eca7bbf17fd44038b9f65f7d 1000w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/capitol-complex-armchair-Pierre-Jeanneret-Cassina-35.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=600&s=18a0612646b155d2fd0fc195b64c8868 600w)
The prevalence of fakes is a growing issue for the design industry. The replica furniture industry began in earnest in the mid-2000s, as a way to reproduce the many iconic mid-century designs that were no longer protected by the copyrights that had ceased years after their designers’ deaths. But changes in how we notice, identify with and acquire objects for our homes have extended the role that fakes play in the global design landscape. As our lives have shifted online, visual sharing platforms such as pinterest and instagram have accelerated not just the visibility, but also the desirability of specific objects and pieces. Suddenly, everything feels attainable. If a certain chair reappears frequently on social media feeds, there is a sense that everyone else owns one — and that by association, you should, and can, too. While vintage originals from the Corbusian city at the base of the Himalayas might be in limited supply, an online search yields multiple dealers offering products that appear to have the same names, shapes and specifications. Clever marketing makes the relationship of these manufacturers to the original design and licensed reproducers even murkier. The growing prevalence means many people are buying fakes without realizing it, unaware of the hidden costs and impacts.
![Capitol complex kitchen](https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/capitol-complex-kitchen.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1297&s=59a47acbf171ac43a6a46777989734c8 1297w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/capitol-complex-kitchen.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1000&s=dd7af58a181d1ea9f79ffb883a4ccd2a 1000w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/capitol-complex-kitchen.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=600&s=a757f25d8009a288bd9c2c04d0be7aff 600w)
While shopping online, in a virtual work, the physical and material qualities of a piece fall into the background. Our focus is on finding the best deal. For a real design piece, it is easy to imagine that the price tag is largely in the concept: the idea of the product, how it looks, and the famous name it carries. In reality, a large portion of the cost lies in the value of a robust, ethical development and production process. As physical objects, the structure, finishes and crafted material relationships are fundamental. Whatever the initial motivation, moving from the sketchy beginnings of an idea towards the completed piece is a process of refinement. A designer can devote years to a particular product or product line, developing their thinking from initial concept to market launch. The process is typically iterative, working with full-scale mock-ups, with each test disclosing new possibilities. Through the production process, new techniques are identified, to be further investigated in future pieces.
The integration of process with design thinking is at the core of many design companies. The innovation is not only evident in how a piece looks, but also in the physical object itself. For individual furniture pieces, intricate manufacturing techniques might be developed to enable slender supporting elements without sacrificing strength, or to give the illusion of massiveness without becoming too heavy. Quality pieces use quality materials, ensuring a piece will last for generations to come. The process also relies on paying a fair wage to each member of the production team, from those sketching initial ideas, to those prototyping, testing new material possibilities or developing the marketing material. And finally, a robust design and manufacturing process also covers safety and strength testing, something that many manufacturers of fakes do not spend time on. Choosing fake products for a bargain price ignores these aspects that a higher price accounts for.
![Le Corbusier Jeanneret 1950](https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Le-Corbusier-Jeanneret-1950.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1400&s=d5c1134f9048453353165423e92ed377 1400w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Le-Corbusier-Jeanneret-1950.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=1000&s=3f1ecaf82e99b97e3e4bc75c7c583e92 1000w, https://context-gallery.imgix.net/images/Le-Corbusier-Jeanneret-1950.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=clip&q=60&w=600&s=ae01d345c5a1b8c0a15bcbab4e020257 600w)
Beyond finding a bargain price, purchasing a fake can also be driven by accessibility and availability. Original pieces are often carefully produced to order, resulting in longer lead times. In a retail landscape where we expect immediacy, real pieces demand patience. On the other hand, stores offering fakes tend to be more widely and immediately available, producing en masse in locations with cheap labor, then storing pieces prior to final shipping. This approach results in significant waste, and often relies on labor that is less-likely to be adequately reimbursed. It is often said that time, cost and quality operate in a push-pull relationship to one another, such that it is not possible to have all three at once. Producers of fake goods may be able to promise lower prices or quicker delivery times, but not without compromising the quality of what they produce, or how they produce it.
As they flood the market, more methods for developing and manufacturing fakes are being developed. With digital drawing files of originals being made available in manufacturers’ online catalogues, the increased transparency is a gift to copy artists. So although questions of ethics and design integrity are always present, other compromises can be less immediately obvious. Perhaps the most visually apparent is quality. A fake design may be overly heavy for its size, or its strength may be incorrectly distributed so that over time the rear legs of a chair warp in comparison to the front. Colors lose their luster more quickly, fabrics pill or shed, and wood may mark or split. Fake pieces frequently make use of cheaper, non-sustainably sourced materials, that are less likely to wear well, and in some cases include toxic glues or fibers. With both materials and craftsmanship lacking longevity, a replica will rarely have the lifespan of an original. Where copies focus on replicating the aesthetic image of a piece, the quality is often compromised in hidden ways.
When Pierre Jeanneret set about designing the Capitol Complex pieces, part of his focus was on designing an honest piece that would last. With the recent reincarnations, his design transcends the time-frame and use that he initially envisaged. Today, real pieces and their fakes co-exist in a complex way, with the differences often clouded or minimized. Yet the question of what constitutes a real or a fake is not purely theoretical. Each piece is evidence of a body of work, a material process, a physical construction process. And it is in this real, physical world, that we engage in with our bodies as much as with our minds, that a fake quickly reveals itself. Lacking quality, a fake is often characterized by poor craftsmanship, discomfort and limited longevity, disregarding sustainability or ethical production methods. The absurdity, then, isn’t in drawing a distinction between real and fake furniture items, but in failing to do so.