Editor’s note: Woodworking Network Senior Editor Karen Koenig was among a group of U.S. journalists and videographers invited by the Polish Investment & Trade Agency for a firsthand look at the country’s furniture manufacturing industry. Here’s one of the companies on the tour.

Vzor and 366 Concept’s shared showroom in Warsaw, Poland, is a showcase for iconic Polish furniture designs. The companies have been working together for 13 years in the promotion and revival of the mid-century modern, 1950s classic styles.

The difference between the two companies, though subtle, is their core philosophy regarding the original type of production. “366 [Concept] furniture has been produced in the past, on a mass scale, in Poland only,” said Monika Boruch, key account manager at 366 Concept. Pointing to the classic 366 Armchair designed by Józef Chierowski, which inspired the company’s name, she added that signature pieces such as the chair, “live in the Polish consciousness. Everybody has a grandma or some relative who has one of these pieces in their spaces.”

Vzor differs in that the designs were either not mass-produced or had not made it past the drawing board or prototype phase. “They have been known as a good cutting-edge example of mid-century design; however, they have never been produced on a mass scale,” said Michal Woch, managing director. 

That doesn’t mean they are not as well-known, he added. One of Vzor’s best-selling pieces is an updated replica of the RM58 chair, originally designed for fiberglass by Roman Modzelewski in 1958. At the time, Modzelewski was working with Le Corbusier, who wanted to mass-produce the chair in France. However, the idea was stopped when Eastern European socialist authorities wouldn’t support the partnership. A version of the chair, in its original fiberglass material, can be found at museums throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.  

In choosing which iconic designs to produce, “one of the key things we focus on is serial production,” said Woch. “There are plenty of furniture prototypes that look quite nice but are so difficult to manufacture on a large scale. We don’t want to offer gallery, high-end, handmade furniture only for the wealthy and people who invest in furniture and art. We want to offer furniture of good quality and good design with a nice story behind it.”

Vzor and 366 Concept secure the rights from the designers or their families to bring the time-tested pieces back into production –  improved for today’s consumer in terms of size or comfort factors, yet fundamentally respectful of the original design. “We see it as our duty to guarantee the proper place for these designers and their products so they become known by the wider public, not only on the Polish market but also internationally,” Woch said.

Furniture is sold directly to consumers or through retailers and distributors in countries including France, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Asia, and the United States. “In Poland, [the furniture] might be well known as heritage pieces, with a bit of history,” Boruch said. But that is not necessarily the case abroad. “So, despite not knowing the story behind it, people are still loving the designs themselves. I think it speaks [to] the timelessness of them.”

For more on Vzor and 366 Concept visit Vzor.com and eu.366Concept.com. Watch the video below for a tour of the showroom. Video by Mynda Swaim, PixelWeave Media, courtesy of Furniture Today.

Read more on the Polish furniture industry and company tours.