Khanh Quasar

Quasar Khanh (1934-2016), whose real name was Nguyen Manh Khanh, was an engineer and designer. He was born in Hanoi, Vietnam and moved to France when he was 15. While pursuing his artistic activities, he joined the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in 1955. The same year, he met a young model, Emmanuelle, whom he married in 1957. In 1958, Quasar Khankhobtained his engineering degree. He first joined the Société Générale d'Entreprises and participated in the design of the Serre-Ponçon dam. In 1960, at Coyne & Bellier, he worked on the Manicouagan dam. At the end of this project and after numerous experiments, he discovered the effect of compressed air in an inflatable plastic structure. This is how his passion for transparency and inflatables was born. In 1966, Quasar created a large inflatable structure in transparent flexible plastic, called The House of Space. It has been used for a fashion show at the Solari swimming pool in Milan. Then, in 1967, the designer created Quasar International company. Space news of this decade was a great source of inspiration for him. Thus, he chose the nickname Quasar, the quasar being a cosmic object even brighter than stars. Under this same impulse, he created the Aerospace Collection. For its inflatable furniture, Quasar played on transparency, making it possible to enlarge the space and give an impression of infinity. This line was made up of the inflatable Chester armchair or the Chesterfield sofa, which both became design icons. Quasar Khanh also explored other domains and other materials like automobile, for example, as he produced a car prototype called ‘'The Cube’'. This avant-garde vehicle was produced in 1968 in London and has been called ‘'the Quasar-Unipower car’'. His stylist wife, Emmanuelle Khanh, created her own clothing brand in 1971. Quasar also tried his hand at fashion and but quickly considered it as a means of financing his researches. 1967 was the year of his first collection, then

Quasar Khanh

a men's collection in the summer of 1971 and 1972 winter. In the mid-1970s, the production of Quasar furniture has stopped. Quasar divorced in 1983, then returned to Vietnam in 1994. There, he worked on the new city project in Ho-Chi-Minh-City. At the same time, he appropriated new materials and created his first bamboo or aluminium furnitures. His achievements were published and marketed in 1996. In 2004, he made Quasar Y1, a flying saucer prototype. Quasar Khanh died in 2016. Rich by its innovation and creativity, his work embodies the spirit of revival and would mark 60s & 70s design.