1. IN THE SPIRIT OF RABELAIS. GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL
Gargantua, the iconic round table by Extremis, celebrates its 20th birthday in 2014. This first-born piece, the apple of designer and Extremis founder Dirk Wynants’ eye, still responds to all the ideals that made the design brand great. In that sense, as an Extremis classic, it is hard to beat. And nonetheless the spontaneous desire for a successor has grown, not to replace it, because the original Gargantua is still part of the collection, but as a worthy alternative, an extension of the range.
The new round picnic table has been aptly named Pantagruel, after Gargantua’s son in the literary masterpieces of Rabelais. There are striking likenesses between the two tables, but a few differences too, for example in their features and the atmosphere they project. The round tabletop of the Pantagruel is fitted with a Lazy Susan, a central revolving tray. The legs are available with a powder coating. The seats are no longer height-adjustable, as they were with the Gargantua. The overall impression is still recognisably sturdy, but the look is just that little bit more elegant, which will make Pantagruel more popular with fans of a more refined aesthetic.
The need to find a suitable name for the latest addition to the family led Extremis to take another close look at the inspiring life and work of the 16th century French writer and humanist François Rabelais. Twenty years ago, Dirk Wynants found his product name in his work. The giant Gargantua and his son Pantagruel are Rabelais’ most famous literary creations. Even today, the terms Rabelaisian and gargantuan are often spontaneously linked with an overabundance of food and drink, rude jokes and earthly pleasures. But anyone who really knows Rabelais’ work will also know that the boisterous humour and satire have a deeper meaning. Between the lines, Rabelais was defending daring and groundbreaking new ideas. The common ground that Rabelais and Extremis share is described in an enjoyable feature in the latest issue of Extremista, Extremis’ magazine. There you will find a cheerful story of a huge appetite, but it is also a tale of insatiable hunger for knowledge, as the quotation below perfectly illustrates.
Rabelais is one of the heralds of the modern age. Throughout his comical stories, he defends the freedom of religion, emancipation from the constraints of mediaeval society, enjoyment of life and individual self-fulfilment. He is a great optimist who invites us to his table with good cheer and warm conviviality. Here is a writer who fits perfectly into our Burgundian and Flemish culture…
Extremis, Rabelais, Gargantua and his son Pantagruel invite you to sit comfortably at their table.
Pantagruel will be introduced to the public in Milan and will be available from April 2014. If you want to compare both tables at your leisure, just update the Extremis app and put the two side by side in your garden!
2. IN PREMIERE! WALRUS, THE FIRST OUTDOOR SOFA
When Extremis was founded twenty years ago, the public were far less familiar than they are now with the idea of the outdoors as a real living space. Extremis was among the pioneers that tried to blur the boundaries between indoors and outdoors. Since then, countless other brands have cottoned on to the trend of the garden as a comfortably furnished ‘outdoor room.’ Sadly they cannot entirely live up to that promise with their trendy outdoor suites. At present there is not one single outdoor sofa on the market that lives up to Extremis’ high quality requirements.
The existing trendy outdoor lounge sofas cannot stand up sufficiently to Belgium’s raw maritime climate to stay outdoors all year round. The familiar solutions to rain, wind, freezing temperatures, fierce sunlight, dust and pollution are feeble compromises at present. For example, protective removable covers are totally impractical and downright unsightly in a beautifully designed garden. Who wants to start dragging covers or loose cushions around at the first glimpse of that brief, precious hour of sunshine, and to find extra storage space for them as well? What is the use of beautifully designed sofas if they start looking horribly dirty almost right away and stay too wet to sit on for days after a shower? Protective coatings do exist, but they make the fabric feel hard and unpleasant.
In short, Extremis insists on doing everything much better! This is not to say that real solutions are easy to find. Incidentally, the great difficulty of the project is the reason why Extremis never wanted to come up with a typical outdoor sofa before.
But now this is about to change! In Milan Extremis will introduce the public to a premiere viewing of the Walrus. It is named after the impressive mammal whose thick, smooth skin defies water, wind and heavy weather. The unique thing about this brand new design is the way it combines two materials to meet the apparently irreconcilable demands of superb comfort, aesthetics and weather-resistance.
The Walrus has a smooth, wipe-clean exterior with a soft and comfortable inside. Thanks to an ingenious zipping system its cushions simply unzip and there is no need to find storage for any covers. Unzipping the Walrus sofa cushions will reveal a cosy resting place in the garden, all year round: your seat will always be dry, and what is more it is lovely and warm in the winter. On the outside you will find an extremely hardwearing material that does not absorb water or attract dirt. Its waterproof zips and rather corpulent shape help the water drain away fast. This keeps maintenance down to a minimum, so that once again you can be sure of getting a piece of furniture with the familiar Extremis quality and durability. Walrus saves you storage space indoors and, above all, a lot of time and effort. It is a real tool for togetherness: Walrus makes togetherness as pleasant as can be, all year round! This is what real innovation is all about.
3. TREMIST. BELGIAN TOGETHERNESS BEER
Extremis presents the new Tremist at I saloni: a Belgian blonde beer, now with an improved recipe but with the same philosophy of togetherness as the previous batch. Brewer and entrepreneur Luc Vermeersch created the beer this time with hops from Dirk Wynants’ own hop garden, fermentation in the bottle and a deliberately low alcohol content so that it can be enjoyed with friends for as long as possible.
