Kangaroo Chair

Pierre Jeanneret was a Swiss architect and cousin of Le Corbusier who served as the chief architect of Chandigarh, India, from the 1950s into the 1960s. The furniture he designed for the city's civic and institutional buildings - including hospitals, courts, and universities - has become highly regarded for its synthesis of modernist principles and local craft, and is now studied and collected internationally.

The Hommage à Pierre Jeanneret Collection is Cassina's scholarly re-edition of key pieces from Jeanneret's Chandigarh furniture program. Each design is meticulously researched and faithfully reproduced in authentic materials - primarily solid wood and woven cane - honoring both the original intent and the cultural context of their creation.

The Kangaroo Chair is constructed from solid wood - typically teak or ash depending on the configuration - with a seat and back woven in natural cane. These materials reflect Jeanneret's original specification and his deliberate integration of Indian craft techniques into a modernist framework.

Jeanneret designed the Kangaroo armchair specifically for the General Hospital Hall in Chandigarh. Its low, reclined Z-profile was suited to the institutional seating context of the city's civic architecture, and the design has since transitioned into private interiors as a collector's piece.

The Z-profile is not decorative but structural - the angled configuration distributes the sitter's weight efficiently across the frame while creating a reclined, restful posture. This integration of engineering and ergonomics within a minimal form is characteristic of Jeanneret's broader approach to furniture design in Chandigarh.