LC14 Tabouret Cabanon is an example of pure and essential design

27 March 2024

In 1951, sitting at the table of a restaurant on the French Riviera, Le Corbusier sketched out the project for the Cabanon. As the name suggests, it is a small hut, only 14 square metres, designed for holidays and therefore without superstructures, identifying the measurements and proportions by applying the Modulor, a system he himself formulated to establish, starting from the measures of man, the greatness of the architecture.

The Cabanon is built following exactly that design executed in an instant and conceived by Le Corbusier as a gift to his wife: it is a seaside cabin that contains the bare essentials for a holiday stay. It is within this framework that the design of the LC14 Tabouret Cabanon also fits, an archetypal stool which, like the small home, is the fruit of an intuition had by the designer in his free time.

It is said, in fact, that the inspiration was an old whiskey crate abandoned on the beach and transformed into a makeshift stool. At that moment, that seat appeared to Le Corbusier to be perfect for the Cabanon, due to the essentiality of its furnishings similar to wooden boxes, and this is how this famous and iconic design object was born. The Tabouret and the Cabanon are therefore two parallel projects in which one inspires and legitimizes the other and together they reveal Le Corbusier’s ability to reduce design thinking to the essential while also promoting a reflection on what, in terms of furnishings and architecture, is truly necessary and important.

And if that shed was a hymn to essentiality, a framework rather than a dwelling, starting from 2010 Cassina included it in its catalog and delivered it to the living of the present. Over the years, the stool has adapted to even completely different living contexts, proving itself suitable for every style – from classic to contemporary, from rustic chic to industrial – and for every type of color palette, thanks to the natural wood that characterizes it.

The structure, in fact, is made of glued solid chestnut slats with open-pore transparent matt paint. A finish that highlights the natural characteristics of the wood, further enhanced by the dovetail joint that evokes its artisanal roots. The stool has a horizontal opening on each side to facilitate movement and transform it from a seat to a table or bedside table.

Matthieu Blazy, creative director of Bottega Veneta defined it as “A practical object that has become a legend”. It is no coincidence that he chose this stool as the seat and backdrop for his brand’s fashion show during the latest fashion week in Milan. In the installation, in addition to the Tabouret, only a series of enchanting Murano glass cacti: a desert landscape devoted to beauty.

Alongside the original version, Cassina now also offers two variants: LC 14 02 Maison du Brésil, in solid oak wood and LC14 Tabouret Nantes Rezè in birch plywood with oak veneer in ultramarine blue and brown, two colors present in the recurring palette of Le Corbusier.

The three versions preserve the original intuition of simplicity and essential beauty, inviting us to rediscover the essence of the objects and furnishings to appreciate their purity and poeticity.

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