Dan Hanganu
The artist and his legacy
Dan Hanganu arrived as an outsider and left the stage celebrated as a luminous, widely honoured member of his profession, an architect of enduring influence. In his ideas, his dreams, his understanding, he chose a path all his own. Obstacles were his joy; he knew the solution was there, just around the corner, where no one was looking.
Part of his talent was the instinct and ability to see and think about things from different points of view. That was natural for him, as natural as speaking Romanian, French, Italian, Greek, as well as English. It was also natural for him to design objects, sometimes for the buildings he was working on, sometimes as independent creations. He would have been in good company with architect/designers Josef Hoffmann, Arne Jacobsen, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier…
Enduring achievements
Bold relevant fresh
To “win” a project as an architect is a complex business. Dan elected to only pursue projects where the selection process involved a competition: submission of a visual and written presentation of the architect’s ideas about how the project should unfold. Most projects simply ask for a portfolio of previous projects. He had a remarkable record for “winning”, but it was not a horse race for him. It was a learning process of trying to understand the project. And more often than not, his understanding won the day. Voilà.
While all of Dan Hanganu’s projects have something to teach us and delight us, some stand out for special mention. The qualities we can see immediately are strength, the clear expression of purpose, and the originality–BOLD RELEVANT FRESH.
in quest of
the 1001st chair
Uniqueness infused with charm
The inspiration of the project
It all started with a sketchbook
Dan bought the famous book “1000 chairs”. He read the book, every page, and reviewed it. Its inspiration for him was clear: to design the chair that had not yet been designed: No. 1001. He looked back 4000 years to the Sumerians and Babylonians to make sure he wasn’t missing anything. Then he waited until the moon came up and the streets of Old Montreal became quiet and he designed his chair, No. 1001.
The making of this project was made possible because of the books that Dan left behind, books of sketches, fully developed drawings, 3D mock-ups in cardboard, all carefully organized in print and digital format. What we have now is the result of his endless questioning, revising, digesting, pausing, changing, reworking. Before anyone would get to see anything, it had been subjected to Dan’s unrelenting search for what the object wanted from him. He kept questioning and wouldn’t stop until he was sure he had done every possible to find “it”.
