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Pierre Jeanneret Chair – Original Chandigarh Furniture at P! Galerie Zurich
Authentic Pierre Jeanneret Chairs: A Legacy of Architectural Modernism
Pierre Jeanneret and the architect Le Corbusier collaborated on one of the most ambitious and ideologically charged urban projects of the 20th century: the creation of Chandigarh. The furniture designed for this city was not ornamental — it was infrastructural. Every original Pierre Jeanneret chair was part of a system: architectural, institutional, and social. These chairs were developed for public buildings — courts, universities, ministries — and reflected a belief in modernism as civic structure.
At P! Galerie in Zurich, we specialise in authentic, original Pierre Jeanneret chairs and Chandigarh furniture. Our inventory includes verified pieces from Indian government buildings — sourced directly from Chandigarh and Ahmedabad — and selected for their provenance, condition, and material integrity. We do not sell reproductions. Every item in our collection is a historical object.
Our selection includes iconic Pierre Jeanneret chair models such as the PJ-SI-28-A office chair, the PJ-SI-59-A Kangaroo lounge chair, and the PJ-SI-33-C committee bench. We also offer floating-back armchairs, slatted benches, modular bookcases, desks, and filing systems. These chairs were made in local workshops from Indian teak, cane, and plywood — using traditional joinery and basic tools — often with small variations and workshop signatures that reinforce their authenticity.So they used simple technologies to develop a rich language of furniture: radical, humble and honest. Jeanneret chair is an experimental artefact, making out of it a valuable collector’s item.
Pierre Jeanneret Chair Models: Iconic Designs from Chandigarh
Our selection includes iconic Pierre Jeanneret chair models that have shaped the history of institutional furniture design. Among the most sought-after pieces are the PJ-SI-28-A office chair, renowned for its ergonomic clarity and structural honesty, and the PJ-SI-59-A Kangaroo lounge chair, which exemplifies Jeanneret’s ability to merge comfort with architectural rigor. The PJ-SI-33-C committee bench represents his approach to collective seating within institutional spaces.
Beyond these signature models, we offer floating-back armchairs that demonstrate innovative cantilever construction, slatted benches designed for public waiting areas, modular bookcases that reflect the city’s systematic planning approach, desks that served administrative functions in government buildings, and filing systems that were integral to Chandigarh’s bureaucratic infrastructure.
Craftsmanship and Authenticity: Indian Teak and Traditional Joinery
These Pierre Jeanneret chairs were made in local workshops from Indian teak, cane, and plywood — using traditional joinery and basic tools. The production process often resulted in small variations and workshop signatures that reinforce their authenticity today. Rather than industrial uniformity, each piece carries the trace of its maker, the particularities of available materials, and the adaptations required by local conditions.
Jeanneret and his collaborators used simple technologies to develop a rich language of furniture: radical, humble and honest. Every Jeanneret chair is an experimental artefact, transforming functional necessity into formal innovation. This experimental quality, combined with historical significance and material integrity, makes each piece a valuable collector’s item recognized by institutions worldwide.
Museum Recognition: Pierre Jeanneret in Permanent Collections
The significance of Pierre Jeanneret’s furniture extends far beyond the collector’s market. His chairs are part of the MoMA permanent collection in New York, demonstrating their recognition as defining objects of 20th-century design. Major institutions including the Vitra Design Museum in Germany and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London have also acquired significant examples of Chandigarh furniture for their permanent holdings.
This museum recognition is not nostalgic. It reflects the ongoing relevance of these pieces: as tools, as typologies, as ideology in form. The inclusion of Pierre Jeanneret chairs in these collections acknowledges their role in design history and their continuing influence on contemporary furniture design and architectural thinking.
The Chandigarh Project: Modernism as Civic Infrastructure
Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand contributed significantly to French design and furniture development before the Chandigarh project began. An original Corbusier chair remains unique in purpose and form, but the Chandigarh furniture represents something distinct — a complete system developed for a new city. Each Pierre Jeanneret chair carries architectural weight. The proportions echo the modularity of the city plan. The rawness is not incidental — it’s essential. These pieces were conceived alongside buildings, not after them. Together with Le Corbusier and B. V. Doshi, Jeanneret developed a furniture program that extended architectural space into everyday use. The furniture was designed to serve Chandigarh’s institutions — the High Court, the Secretariat, the Assembly, and the university campus — creating a consistent material language across the city’s public realm.
The Chandigarh furniture program represents one of the most comprehensive attempts to integrate furniture design with urban planning. Every chair, desk, and bookcase was considered as part of the architectural ensemble, reinforcing the modernist vision of total design that guided the entire project.
P! Galerie’s Curatorial Approach: Preservation Over Restoration
P! Galerie treats these objects as cultural documents. We do not over-restore. We preserve the authentic patina, surface wear, construction marks — signs of use that tie the object to its institutional origin. Our philosophy recognizes that the history embedded in these pieces — the decades of use in government offices, the climatic effects of the Indian environment, the traces of institutional life — is integral to their significance.
When a Pierre Jeanneret chair shows wear from years of service in a Chandigarh ministry, that wear tells a story. It connects the object to its original purpose and context. Our conservation approach focuses on structural stability and material preservation while maintaining the authentic character that makes each piece a genuine historical artefact.
Every Pierre Jeanneret chair we offer comes with full documentation, historical context, and certification. We provide detailed provenance information, including photographic documentation of original locations where available, export documentation from India, and research materials that situate each piece within the Chandigarh furniture program.
Parallel Positions: A Curated Selection of Architectural Furniture
Our practice includes parallel positions in architectural furniture that share conceptual affinities with the Chandigarh project. We offer Charlotte Perriand’s Nuage shelving systems, which demonstrate her radical approach to modular storage and spatial organization. Jean Prouvé’s steel structures exemplify French industrial design’s marriage of engineering and aesthetics. Lina Bo Bardi’s Brazilian concrete-wood hybrids represent modernism’s adaptation to tropical climates and local materials. Tom Strala’s contemporary Swiss radicalism extends the tradition of architectural furniture into present practice. We approach these pieces not as collectibles, but as spatial tools. Each object is evaluated for its contribution to architectural thinking, its material innovation, and its relationship to broader questions of design ideology and social function.
International Presence: Exhibitions and Sales Network
We have exhibited and sold original Pierre Jeanneret chairs internationally — through 1stdibs, Artsy, Art Basel, Design Miami, and soon TEFAF. Our presence at major design fairs positions us within the global conversation about mid-century furniture and architectural heritage. Our clients include private collectors, museums, architects, and institutions across New York, Paris, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Mexico City.
Our international network allows us to source exceptional pieces and connect them with collectors and institutions who understand their significance. We work with auction houses such as Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Wright20, but maintain independent curatorial control, ensuring that our standards for authenticity, condition, and historical significance guide every acquisition.
The P! Galerie Showroom: Architectural Installations in Dietikon
Our showroom in Dietikon, near Zurich, presents these pieces in architectural installations — not as lifestyle arrangements, but as curated fragments of a historical system. The display strategy reflects our understanding of these objects as components of larger architectural and social programs. Rather than domestic staging, we create spatial compositions that emphasize structure, proportion, and material quality.
Viewing appointments allow collectors and researchers to examine pieces closely, to understand construction details, to assess condition, and to discuss provenance. We encourage direct engagement with the objects, recognizing that their physical presence — the weight of teak, the texture of cane, the evidence of joinery — communicates aspects of their significance that photographs cannot capture.
How Valuable is a Pierre Jeanneret Chair? The value of a Pierre Jeanneret chair extends beyond market price to encompass historical significance, material quality, provenance, and condition. Market values have increased substantially over the past two decades as recognition of the Chandigarh project’s importance has grown. Rare models in exceptional condition with documented provenance command premium prices at international auctions.
However, financial value represents only one dimension of these objects’ significance. Pierre Jeanneret’s work resists decorative reduction. His chairs are not about comfort — they are about structure, refusal, and material honesty. Every original Pierre Jeanneret chair is an artefact of a political and architectural ideology. Chandigarh’s modernism is visible in these objects: civic, direct, unfinished — and precisely for that, complete.
Collecting Le Corbusier Furniture and Interior Design
How does one approach collecting Le Corbusier furniture and interior design from the Chandigarh period? The process requires knowledge, patience, and careful evaluation. Authenticity is paramount — the market contains numerous reproductions and pieces of uncertain origin. Documentation, provenance research, and material analysis are essential tools for verification.
Collectors should understand the institutional context from which these pieces emerge. Unlike domestic furniture designed for private consumption, Chandigarh furniture served public functions. This institutional origin affects both the design characteristics and the ethical considerations of collecting. We work to ensure that our sourcing practices respect cultural heritage while making significant pieces available to collectors and institutions who will preserve and study them.
The Director: Pedja Hadzi-Manovic and Architectural Research
P! Galerie is directed by Pedja Hadzi-Manovic, an architect from ETH Zurich and design researcher focused on mid-century institutional design, postcolonial architecture, and material ideology. His practice connects physical objects with historical trajectories — from Chandigarh to Cansado, from Zurich to Ahmedabad.
This research foundation informs every aspect of P! Galerie’s operation. We do not simply buy and sell furniture; we study it, contextualize it, and present it as part of larger narratives about modernism, decolonization, material culture, and architectural thinking. Our exhibitions, publications, and client consultations reflect this scholarly approach.
What We Offer: Substance Over Style
What we offer is not style. It’s substance. Each Pierre Jeanneret chair we sell is a witness — to an unfinished project of architecture, function, and civic presence. These objects embody questions that remain relevant: What is the relationship between design and social organization? How do materials carry ideology? What happens when architectural vision confronts practical constraints and local conditions? The chairs from Chandigarh do not provide simple answers. They document a complex historical moment when modernist ideals met postcolonial reality, when European architects worked with Indian craftsmen, when utopian planning encountered bureaucratic necessity. The furniture preserves this complexity in physical form.
Contact P! Galerie in Zurich
For inquiries about available Pierre Jeanneret, Corbusier, Strala or Rietveld design objects, viewing appointments at our Dietikon showroom, or documentation requests, contact P! Galerie in Zurich. We welcome collectors, researchers, institutions, and anyone interested in the intersection of furniture design, architectural history, and material culture.
Whether you seek a specific model for a collection, require expertise for authentication, or wish to explore the broader context of Chandigarh furniture, our team provides specialized knowledge and direct access to exceptional pieces. Each conversation begins with understanding your interest and connecting it with appropriate objects from our inventory.
