2001: A Space Odyssey — The Red Lounge, on Pause

1968. Inside Stanley Kubrick's space station, a red lounge floats in the middle of the white: it is probably the most quoted design scene in the history of cinema. Put it on pause — everything in it truly exists.

The red chairs

These are the Djinn by Olivier Mourgue, designed in 1965: moulded foam over a tubular frame, stretched with red jersey, low and sinuous like a spirit out of the Thousand and One Nights — hence the name. Kubrick chose them because they looked as though they came from the future; sixty years on, they still do. The originals, produced by Airborne, have become collector's pieces that change hands for several thousand euros and turn up at auction.

The white tables

Around the Djinn sit tables on a flared central pedestal, in the spirit of Eero Saarinen's Tulip — the famous "clearing away the slum of legs". The Tulip itself is still produced by Knoll, and its vintage market is one of the most legible there is: we devoted a full breakdown to it in the Le Scan section.

The detail no one notices

On the shuttle, the meal trays are eaten with cutlery by Arne Jacobsen, designed in 1957 — so radical it passed for science fiction. It is still produced by Georg Jensen, and it is the most affordable piece in the whole scene.

Getting the scene

Without the Djinn budget: look for low French foam pieces from the 1970s, stretched jerseys, forthright reds. The power of the scene rests on contrast — a single red, organic volume in a light interior is enough.

The section's gesture: put the film on pause, capture the scene, scan it on Beyit. The original, the alternatives, the prices.