Extremis
Extremis
Est. 1994
About
Extremis is a Belgian company that designs and produces outdoor furniture, with its headquarters and experience showroom at Couthoflaan 20b in Poperinge, in the Westhoek area of West Flanders. It trades as Extremis NV and appears in the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Enterprises under enterprise number 0434.625.128, which lists the manufacture of furniture among its registered activities at that address. The company sums up its position with a line it uses on its own website: "We don't make furniture, we make tools for togetherness." Extremis dates its start to 1994, when Dirk Wynants, born in 1964, designed an outdoor table for his own family. That table, Gargantua, takes its name from the giant in Rabelais and is still in the catalogue: a round table with benches that orbit it, built from Class I hardwoods and galvanised steel, with a perforated stainless steel centre, wooden edges, and galvanised steel legs and base. Its benches can be set at different heights so that children sit at eye level with adults, and the table is shaped so that guests in wheelchairs have access. The company marked 25 years of Gargantua in 2019. Gargantua was followed in 1998 by Extempore, a garden range developed with designer Arnold Merckx that combined wood and aluminium, and in 2002 by Picnik, which the company describes as a picnic table born from a single flat sheet of aluminium with zero waste, developed by Wynants with Xavier Lust, a designer known for his aluminium bending technique. Strategic cuts and folds give the powder-coated table its shape, water drains off it easily, and the sloping legs let several tables stack for transport or storage. Hopper, from 2010, is a picnic table with low entry points and slanted bench corners so that no one has to climb over a neighbour to sit down; Wynants traces its name to the hop fields of the Westhoek, after he planted a hop field of his own to restore the local landscape, and it is offered either in wood or in all aluminium. Walrus, from 2014, is modular outdoor lounge seating made for all-weather use, with cushions that fit into the backside so that the sofa acts as its own cover. Shade has been a second strand of the range. Inumbra arrived in 2007 with white fabric that was almost entirely flat, and Kosmos in 2008, drawing on the coziness and versatility of the yacht cockpit, brings table and seats, sofa, bed, light and shade together in one piece. In 2016 the company introduced Sol+Luna, Virus, Bistroo and Acacia, addressing ever smaller spaces; AMAi followed in 2021, and 2023 brought the Sensu parasol along with the Panigiri and Manille tables. The current collection is organised into tables, chairs and benches, shades, loungers and what the company calls mood makers — space dividers and accessories — and includes Cabrio, Pantagruel, Sticks, Captain's Chair, Marina, Tiki, Inumbrina and Anker alongside the older names. Extremis publishes material and care guidance covering wood, powder-coated aluminium and steel, galvanised steel and outdoor fabrics, noting that its products are all-weather proof while the cushions and parasol fabrics are not. The company's own press material describes Dirk Wynants as the founder and owner of Extremis and its head designer, and as the person who devised the "Tools for Togetherness" branding concept. In the 24th edition of the Henry van de Velde Awards, run by Flanders District of Creativity, Wynants received the Lifetime Achievement Gold Award. In 2015 the company rebuilt its own premises in West Flanders along biophilic principles, applying to the buildings the same thinking it applies to products. Extremis Inc, the distribution division for the United States, was founded in 2016 by Thomas Wynants, and on 4 June 2018 Steelcase announced that it would offer a collection of Extremis products through its dealer network in the United States, Mexico and Canada; that announcement describes Extremis as having its headquarters and manufacturing in Poperinge, Belgium. Besides Poperinge, Extremis lists contact addresses in Rockford, Michigan; Munich; Kruisem in Belgium; and Tokyo. Extremis groups its published reference projects as corporate, residential, hospitality, education, healthcare and public, and separates outdoor from indoor settings, which reflects where the furniture ends up: terraces and gardens, restaurant and hotel exteriors, office courtyards and campuses, schools and public parks. Products are available through the Extremis website and its dealers and distributors, and through Steelcase dealers for corporate customers in North America.
Specifications
- Categories
- outdoorhospitalityofficehomeeducational
- Price Range
- $$$
- Founded
- 1994
- Headquarters
- Poperinge, Belgium
Resources
Common Questions
Extremis is headquartered at Couthoflaan 20b in Poperinge, in the Westhoek area of West Flanders, Belgium, where it also runs an experience showroom. The company is registered as Extremis NV in the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Enterprises, with furniture manufacture among its listed activities at that address. It also publishes contact addresses in Rockford, Michigan; Munich; Kruisem in Belgium; and Tokyo.
Extremis dates its founding to 1994, when Dirk Wynants, born in 1964, designed an outdoor table for his own family in Poperinge. That table, Gargantua, became the company's first product and is still in the range; the company marked its 25th anniversary in 2019. The legal entity behind the business, Extremis NV, carries an earlier register start date of 18 June 1988 in the Belgian enterprise register.
Extremis is known for outdoor furniture designed around the idea of togetherness. Products include Gargantua (1994), a round table with height-adjustable benches; Picnik (2002), a picnic table made from a single flat sheet of aluminium and developed by Dirk Wynants with Xavier Lust; and Hopper (2010), a picnic table with low entry points and slanted bench corners. The range also covers shades and parasols such as Inumbra and Sensu, loungers, and modular outdoor seating such as Walrus.
Extremis is an independent Belgian company. Its own press material describes founder Dirk Wynants as the owner of Extremis and its head designer. The arrangement announced with Steelcase in June 2018 covers distribution to customers in the United States, Mexico and Canada and is not a change of ownership; Extremis Inc, founded in 2016 by Thomas Wynants, is the distribution division for the United States.
Extremis products are sold internationally through the company's own website and through its dealers and distributors, with contact points listed in Belgium, the United States, Germany and Japan. In North America, Steelcase offers a collection of Extremis products through its dealer network under an arrangement announced on 4 June 2018. furniture.directory is an independent directory and does not sell furniture directly.
Extremis is based at Couthoflaan 20b in Poperinge, Belgium, and its entry in the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Enterprises lists the manufacture of furniture among its registered activities at that address. Steelcase's 2018 announcement likewise describes Extremis as having its headquarters and manufacturing in Poperinge. The company's own site presents Poperinge as its headquarters and experience showroom, and describes rebuilding those premises in 2015 along biophilic principles; it does not publish a breakdown of where each component or product is produced.