Effortless elegance
View(s):A Belgian sailing champion, the multi-faceted Jacob Pringiers discusses his passion for design as well as his affinity with Sri Lanka since the 60s
By Smriti Daniel
Jacob Pringiers, the CEO of the Sri Lankan company A+ has an interesting history. Before he found his way back to Sri Lanka and began the dual businesses of designing elegant, modern furniture and boats, he had a curious resume: the work experience section on his C.V includes entries as diverse as a stint at Wellcraft Marine in Florida where he helped design watercraft (including the 23 Scarab seen in the John Travolta/Nicholas Cage action flick ‘Face Off’) and the company he founded with Luca Casini – Casini & Pringiers Associates – in Milan where among other projects, they designed toothbrushes. A champion racer, Jacob also holds several national titles in the catamaran class in Belgium.
Designed to fit in: Jacob’s wooden creations
Though Jacob has spent extended periods of time in both America and Europe, it’s interesting to discover he feels perhaps most at home in Sri Lanka. “We came in the 1980s because my father started a project here producing industrial tyres,” says Jacob, who was born in Belgium but spent nine years of his adolescence here. Jacob would eventually make his way to Italy to study industrial design, spending time in Vevey, Switzerland and in Pasadena in the U.S as well, where he studied at the Art Centre College of Design. Upon graduating, he applied his knowledge to designing boats, working in Florida and California. A particularly memorable project was one where he worked with naval engineers Morelli & Melvin to design Steve Fossett’s mega racing catamaran ‘PlayStation.’
Created for the around the world sailing competition known simply as The Race, the boat was built for speed and relied on state of the art materials and cutting edge design to get it there. PlayStation went on to claim several records, including the Transatlantic record (4 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes and 6 seconds to cover a distance of 2,925 miles), the 24 hours distance record (1,272.64 km) and then after being rechristened Cheyenne in 2003, the round the world sailing record (58 days 9 hours 32 minutes and 45 seconds in 2004.)
And it wasn’t all just about boats. Jacob says he spent 15 years in Italy, where Casini and Pringiers Associates worked not just with Colgate but with Nike, WMF, Avec, Arcade, Riva and
Jacob hits the waters in one of his own speed boats. Pic by Sébastien Godefroid
Ritzenhoff among others, dabbling in everything from shoes to furniture design and designer eyewear. (They continue to team up for some projects. Their successful collaboration continues: most recently, they won the 2011 Trend product of the Year award in Frankfurt for ‘Lulu’ – a collection of ceramic vases.) In Milan, he taught classes on industrial design for the Polytechnic University and then in 2002, he founded the Jacob Pringiers Studio.
When he moved back to Sri Lanka, family in tow, in 2005, it was to collaborate with the interior design firm Top Mouton on a residential house designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. He followed it two years later with another project, also a residential home but this time designed by Shigeru Ban, also from Japan. “Each project lasted about four years,” says Jacob, explaining when they were done, he found he had succeeded in establishing a high end furniture production facility. Jacob now lives here with his wife and children – in part to be close to his parents who still call the island home – but has found his own reasons to stay. A+ Furniture, the company he runs, promises furniture that combines pure Belgian design with Italian elegance and pieces that create ‘atmosfera’ without brazenly drawing attention to themselves.
A+ furniture falls into three main lines: the frame, wood and aluminium collections. For the first, he relies on steel frames and sheets to create his designs, the same goes for the aluminium collection. For the wood collection, he uses Sri Lankan teak. Jacob sees a niche he can conquer in the island’s furniture market: pieces that aren’t minimalist exactly, but that Jacob describes as having a clean, high quality, very ‘essential’ aesthetic. “It’s a gap we want to fill,” he adds.
Jacob doesn’t intend for his designs to be the sole furnishings in the homes of his customers. “What we’re actually trying to do is produce a very essential, elegant line of furniture that can be combined with a lot of other styles,” he says. “For example if you look at our basic table or chair in teak, you can combine that with a cupboard your grandmother gave you. It doesn’t disturb, it doesn’t clash.”
Jacob says his designs are also never a triumph of form over function: “When you’re doing design you’re doing it to better other people’s lives or to help them,” he says. On their small catalogue A+ includes accessories, as well as tables, chairs and shelving. Jacob was always determined not to overdo his selection because he felt to do so would be to lose his focus. A concern with sustainable 
design has also ruled out closed wardrobe cupboards – “making those type of things in the material we’ve chosen doesn’t make sense ecologically,” says Jacob, whose work you’ll find not only in residential homes but in shops, restaurants and offices as well.
While A+ takes up much of his time, Jacob remains passionate about boat design and runs another company which he founded this year. Onda distributes surfboards and designs, develops and manufactures rigid, inflatable boats, fibreglass canoes and beach catamarans – including what might be Sri Lanka’s only 18ft beachable catamaran. In 2012, Jacob also claimed his 8th Belgian National Championship sailing in Bredene. His boat, also dubbed Onda, triumphed in the Patin A Vela beach catamaran class. He first began sailing the catamarans, one of the fastest of the sailing vessels, at age 10 and has since come to be one of the dominant competitors in the sport in his country of birth. Jacob says he relishes the speed and the sheer physicality it takes to dominate the sport. Though he enjoys returning home to compete, this island with its long coastline and balmy weather, allows Jacob to enjoy the water all year round – one more of those little things that keeps him feeling at home in Sri Lanka.
Find Jacob online at: www.aplus.lk and www.onda.lk
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