Designer Chairs
Welcome to the part of Arkitecture On Web dedicated to chair design! Here we put designer chairs under the magnifying glass and take an in-depth look at their signature design, materials and engineering.
Key tenet of chair design is, in fact, that chairs are more than just objects to comfortably sit on. Designer chairs are unique pieces of furniture which contribute firsthand into bringing to life an architectural vision.
No line, no choice of colour and material, is ever random. Every designer chair is conceived and crafted in order to engage in a meaningful dialogue with its surroundings.
In this section we look at how chair designers achieved this, both in the present and in the past.
About Designer Chairs
Chairs have been around since ancient Egypt, some 5000-ish years ago. For much of their existence they were regarded as luxury goods. Only rulers and nobles had the right to sit on chairs - and thrones, while common people had to make do with humble stools and benches, when not with the ground.
Then the industrial revolution(s) came along, and chairs became a mass-produced widely-available object across the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries. This prompted the birth of the designer chair as we know it today, starting with styles like Biedermeier and Art Nouveau.
From the Fifties onwards, mass production, low cost and high demand from the households, allowed chair designers to fully unleash their creativity, explore new materials and push existing boundaries: like in Charles and Ray Eames’ Lounge and Ottoman, Arne Jacobsen’s Egg chair, Marcel Breuer’s Cesca Chair.
Many famous architects also stepped in the role of chair designers, as testament to the ongoing dialogue between architecture and chair design. Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona, Le Corbusier’s Grand Confort, Gehry’s Wiggle Side Chair, Rietveld’s Red Blue Chair, just to name a few examples.
Each designer chair is therefore a unique feat of engineering, design and usability, which is in constant dialogue with the architecture around it.
Take a look at what’s new about designer chairs here:
