Seeking to provide guests with a versatile and truly outdoor piece of furniture, Extremis has released Sol+Luna, an innovative sun lounger that transforms into a comfortable sofa by night. Offering two pieces of furniture in one, Sol+Luna features a shelf that doubles as a backrest, and a compact adjustable shade that also provides a source of light when plugged in.

With outdoor spaces, and particularly roof terraces, becoming increasingly sought after, Extremis’ latest product allows designers and operators to utilise their outdoor areas at all times, without sacrificing this precious and often limited space.

Dirk Wynants, Founder and Director of Extremis, spoke to Sleeper about the release.

 

Where did the inspiration for Sol+Luna come from?

I’ve wanted to make sun loungers for the last ten years, but it was very difficult for me to find added value in a sun lounger, because we never want to put something on the market that is the same as what already exists. If you look at sun loungers, then most are practically identical, with very minor differences in aesthetics and a little bit of functionality, so the inspiration was to challenge this.

What were the challenges in designing a product that works at both day and night?

A sun lounger is only useful when there is sun and the sun goes away every day, so both the sun lounger itself and the space it occupies become useless. We had to account for this.

Is there an Extremis philosophy, and has this been incorporated into Sol+Luna?

Absolutely, first of all we want to do something that adds value to the existing market, and has better functionality than what already exists. We also really want to focus on the changes in society that we notice, and so the fact that living space is getting smaller is one of these changes, and we wanted to address this.

What are the prerequisites for good outdoor furniture design?

In my opinion most outdoor furniture is just indoor furniture that has been changed in minor ways, and isn’t really designed as outdoor furniture at all. Think about outdoor sofas in general, they are practically the same as indoor sofas, but to protect them you have to provide covers. If you have to provide covers then is it really an outdoor sofa? Take our Walrus sofa for example: with that, we’ve inverted the whole thing in the sense that we made a sofa from the covering material, and inside the back rest there are cushions and fabrics that you open and fold out, so you cover it with fabric instead of with a cover. That’s a true outdoor sofa, and so the perquisite, I think, is considering the environment, and making a design that is truly suited for that environment, not just making indoor furniture to then be used outdoors.

Has your approach to designing outdoor furniture changed since you started Extremis?

When I started Extremis there was no market for outdoor furniture. Back in 1994 I wanted to establish my own design brand, and I had a choice of whether to compete with existing brands, and do the same things as they do, which I thought wouldn’t be a good choice. So I decided to focus on outdoor designs, which, again, was not part of the market at that point. You could see the nice architecture, and nice buildings, but they had the most stupid plastic outdoor furniture, and it was considered normal, because the outdoor space at that point didn’t have the same value as the Indoor space. We’ve definitely seen a recent trend of the outdoor space becoming a sort of living space that is equally important as all other living spaces in the rest of the house, so I’ve adapted to that.

What’s next for Extremis?

In Milan we will be releasing another piece of seating furniture. With this we have focused again on small spaces, but also on small budgets. We see that the average age of our buyer is about 45, but if we look at all the followers we have on social media, then that drops and they are in their 30s. So we now focus on that group of potential customers, and designing something for them.

 

Sol+Luna is available in two versions. The southern version, Australis, is clean and architectural, whereas the northern version, Borealis, has a somewhat more organic look. Extra options include recliner cushions, back cushions, a towel holder and a small locker to store precious items.

www.extremis.be