Chairs are like artwork. They mix engineering design, materiality and practicality. During the 20th century lots of designers created the chairs we are sitting on. Chairs with a great design and functionality which have reached our days as iconic pieces.
Today, we want to show you 5 of our favourite iconic chairs. There are lots of amazing chairs, but this is our top 5.
Gerrit Rietveld, Zig-Zag chair, c.1932-34.
The Zig-Zag chair was a complete departure from all previous chairs. It has no legs, it is made of planes only, and the supporting part is diagonal. It can be used as a stacking chair, and it requires a minimum of space.
Arne Jacobsen, Swan, Model No, 3320, 1957-58.
Arne Jacobsen designed the Swan™ as well as the Egg™ for the lobby and lounge areas at the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, in 1958.
Jorge Ferrari Hardoy, Juan Kurchan & Antonio Bonet, Butterfly, Model No. 198, 1938.
The B.K.F. Chair—also known as the Hardoy Chair, Butterfly Chair, Safari Chair, Sling Chair, or Wing Chair—was designed in Buenos Aires. Its name credits its three designers.
Marco Zanuso, Lady, 1951.
In the late 1940s, Zanuso created a furniture collection using a newly developed polyurethane foam and elastic tape. With these new materials, Zanuso designed a series of pieces that became icons of modernist design, including the Lady Armchair.
Arne Jacobsen, Egg Model No. 3316, 1958.
Danish cabinetmaker Fritz Hansen founded his eponymous furniture manufacturing company with his son Christian in Copenhagen in 1885. In 1915, Christian began to introduce industrial processes, such as steam-bending wood, which enabled the family business to mass-produce models such us this design by Arne Jacobsen.
Which iconic chair do you miss in this list?