Janus Chairs

The Janus Chairs are a shelter / art installation that form part of the Kielder Art Trail, that can be found on the north shore of the reservoir. They were designed by Newcastle based Ryder Architects and were unveiled in 2009. Originally there were three chairs which rotated but there is currently only one left as the others are off for repair.

The seats were small, medium and large in size and were set close to each other on a small peninsular that used to be the location of Plashetts Farm. Some of the farm's structure is still visible to the right-hand side of the peninsular. While they are large in size and bearing in the seats base allows them to be turned slowly to give the sitter shelter from the wind and rain or allows them to turn it towards the sun to soak up some rays.

Some descriptions of the design suggest that the seats were based on flower petals unfolding, but given the reference to Janus, personally we think it is more to do with the Roman God of the same name. Janus is the God of beginnings, transitions, and endings as well as gates, doorways, and passages. He was always depicted with two faces so was able to look into the past and future at the same time and you can do the same in the chairs as you spin round.

The chairs have a "Glulam" construction, which is where lots of thinner strips of wood are shaped and bent in a former then glued together to give them strength. When they are taken out of the mould the shape retains its form and these individual sections can then be glued next to each other to form a wider chair shape. We can confirm the shape is very comfortable to sit in!

The seats were then backed with stainless steel to reflect the sky and the surrounding landscape. Sadly, this is a bit dulled now so you don't get to fully experience that effect.

As mentioned above, there is only one of the chairs left while repairs are being made so if anyone has photos of them when all three were present, we would love to see them.

UPDATE!

We received the fantastic photos below of the three chairs from Fabulous North follower Martin Roberts, showing how they looked prior to the repairs being carried out.