Peace in Nature with the Polder Sofa

Adeline and Florent Maillet bravely relocated from a hard urban landscape to the quaint country in pursuit of a home in touch with nature. After living in the city for approximately 10 years prior to taking over the family farm, the Maillet’s finalized their decision to build the home of their dreams: a wooden eco-house just outside of Lyon, France. They desired a home that blended into the scenery and did not obstruct the fields or nature around it. The couple sought after a straightforward and simple design, with personalized characteristics and details such as a wood stove providing both physical and emotional warmth. The Maillet’s yearned for a space that allowed them to feel at ease, inside and out.

Displaying an array of plants and large windows, the house is wonderfully decorated by nature. Seasonal variations affect the light, encouraging endless gazes upon the surrounding landscape. As soon as spring starts, the couple are outside working in the garden, trimming trees, and mowing the grass, meanwhile winters are spent inside by the fire. They gather wood in the spring and cut it for the next winter. Slow living and slow eating are built into the foundations of the home’s design.

Adeline and Florent chose furnishings that hold a history and inhabit feelings. They wanted the home filled with high-quality items that can be passed on to others for generations. Inhabiting the space, Vitra’s Polder Sofa embodies the quality of modern design with the intrigue of a domestic classic.

The Dutch designer, Hella Jongerius, knew from the beginning that colours and materials would be important components of her design. She was very aware that many people lack an understanding of the types of textiles they prefer to have on their furniture. Therefore, Jongerious drew a sketch of a sofa with seat and back cushions made of many materials, each in a different shade of a single fundamental colour, created exactly to her own liking. The design was refined for manufacturing during the ensuing months in association with Vitra experts, and it was unveiled in 2005 at the Milan furniture fair.

The Polder Sofa’s asymmetrical design is meant to represent the polder, or flatlands, in Holland that have been reclaimed from the sea by dykes and drainage canals. Six carefully chosen colour schemes are used to cover the various textiles that cover the upholstered cushions and couch components. The sofa prompts many questions: Was there an error in the upholstery procedure? Has the colour faded in certain areas? Is the couch new or used?

This way of thinking is reflected in the decorative buttons on the cushions, which are made of exotic natural materials like mother-of-pearl, olive wood, buffalo horn, and bamboo and include various holes punched in what appears to be a random pattern. Large cross-stitches of high-tech thread used to attach the buttons to the upholstery give the sofa a unique, handcrafted appearance.

The Polder sofa is unlike any sofa that had ever existed before. Hella Jongerius updated her popular design in 2015, increasing comfort by adding larger cushions and changing the colour schemes. Since 2007, she has served as Vitra's Art Director for colours and materials, where she has developed the company's Colour & Material Library in addition to creating new products. The Polder Sofa is still one of the most recognizable items in the Vitra Home Collection today.