一个世纪的椅子设计(图片英语)

一个世纪的椅子设计（图片英语）

Few

objects

tell

the

history

of

modern

design

as

eloquently

as

the

chair.

Aesthetic

trends,

the

emergency of new technologies, ergonomics, social and cultural developments are all reflected in

the evolution of chair design.

LA

TE 1800s

Until

the

mid-19th

century,

most

chairs

were

made

by

hand,

but

the

newindustrialists

were

experimenting

with

modern

production

techniques

tomanufacture

high

quality

furniture

swiftly

and cheaply in largequantities. Among the most successful was the Austrian manufacturerMichael

Thonet, who pioneered the mass-production of bentwoodfurniture. By the late 1800s, his simply

styled chairs had become thefirst to be used by both aristocrats and factory workers.

2007-11-17 10:46

Chairs in production at the Thonet factory

Side Chair No. 14, 1870

Production: Thonet, Austria

Regarded as the most successful industrial product of the 19th century

,the Thonet Chair No. 14

–

nicknamed

the

?Consumer

Chair?

–

owed

itspopularity

to

cheapness,

lightness

and

strength.

Thonet

struggled

foryears

to

produce

a

version

of

No.

14

which

would

be

suitable

formass-production

and

succeeded

in

1859.

Early

versions

were

gluedtogether

from

laminated

wood

but,

by

1861

Thonet

succeeded

in

makingthe

chair

in

solid

wood with

screws,

not

glue.

Thonet continued toimprove the design and, by 1867, the Consumer Chair could be made fromsix

pieces

of

bentwood,

ten

screws

and

two

washers.

By

1870

theConsumer

Chair

was

Thonet?s

cheapest model selling for 3 Austrianflorins.

Side Chair No. 14, 1870

Bent, solid and laminated beech, woven cane

Production: Thonet, Austria

Rocking Chair No. 1, 1860

Production: Thonet, Austria

The popularity of the Arts and Crafts movement encouraged the middleand upper classes to regard

rocking

chairs

and

other

rustic

styles

offurniture

with

a

new

affection

during

the

late

1800s.

Despite itsindustrial ethos, Thonet drew inspiration from Arts and Crafts designin the styling of its

products. The company developed its first rockingchair, the Rocking Chair No. 1, in 1860. Sales

were slow at first, butRocking Chair No. 1 and subsequent rockers steadily gained popularityand

by 1913, one in every twenty chairs sold by Thonet was a rockingchair.

Rocking Chair No. 1

Bent, solid and laminated beech, woven cane

Production: Thonet, Austria

Desk Chair No. 9, c.1905

Production: Thonet, Austria

Developed by Thonet as a comfortable, inexpensive desk chair, the No. 9

–

or V

ienna Chair

–

went

on

sale

in

1902.

It

attained

iconic statuswhen

the

architect

Le

Corbusier chose

it

to

furnish

his

Pavilion del?Esprit Nouveau (the Pavilion of the New Spirit) at the 1925Exposition Internationale

des Arts Dé

coratifs in Paris. Le Corbusierjustified his choice

by explaining: “We believe that this

chair,millions

of

which

are

in

use…

is

a

noble

thing.”

Architects flocked

toParis

for

the

1925

Exposition

from

all

over

the

world

and

LeCorbusier?s

pavilion

was

one

of

the

most

admired

installations.

Chair No. 9

Bent, solid and laminated beech, woven cane

Production: Thonet, Austria

EARLY

1900s

The early 1900s was a period of continued experimentation

in chairdesign. Innovative designers

and

architects,

such

as

Charles

RennieMackintosh

in

Scotland

and

Koloman

Moser

and

Josef

Hoffmann in Austria,strove to apply the geometric forms and monochrome palette favoured bythe

fledgeling modern movement to furniture and domestic objects. Madeby hand in small quantities,

their chairs were mostly bought by wealthybohemians, except for occasional special commissions

for publicbuildings such as Glasgow tea rooms and V

iennese coffee houses.

Charles

Rennie

Mackintosh's

design

of

the studio

drawing-room

in

his

house

at

78

South

Park

Terrace, Glasgow, 1902

High-backed chair for the Ingram Street Tea Rooms, 1900

Oak

Design: Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Among

the

earliest

and

most

eloquent

exponents

of

a

modern

spirit

inBritish

design

was

the

Scottish architect and designer Charles RennieMackintosh (1868-1928). By fusing the influence

of

traditional

Celticcraftsmanship

with

the

purity

of

Japanese

aesthetics,

Mackintoshdefined

a

distinctive

and

highly

refined

design

style

on

the

cusp

ofArt

Nouveau,

the

Arts

and

Crafts

Movement

and

central

EuropeanSecessionism.

One

of

his

most

enduring

clients

was

Mis

s

Cranston, whoowned a chain of tea rooms in Glasgow and asked Mackintosh to designthem. He

designed the stark, geometric form of this high-backed chairto contrast boldly with the white walls

of the ladies? luncheon room inthe Ingram Street tea room.

High-backed chair for the Ingram Street Tea Rooms, 1900

Design: Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Reissue: Cassina, Italy

Armchair for the Purkersdorf Sanatorium, 1902

Beech, wicker

Design: Koloman Moser

As a designer of both graphics and furniture, Koloman Moser (1868-1918)favoured the geometric

motifs

and

monochrome

palette

which

were

totypify

the

work

of

the

Wiener

Werkst?

tte,

the

influential craftworkshops that he founded in

Vienna with the

architect Josef Hoffmannin 1903.

This armchair, which was considered as audacious in style bythe Austrians of the early 1900s as

Charles

Rennie

Mackintosh?s

angularfurniture

was

by

his

fellow

Scots, was

originally

designed

for

use

inthe

foyer

of

the

Purkersdorf

Sanatorium

of which

Hoffmann was

thearchitect.

At

the

sanatorium, Moser?s armchairs were arranged in pairsaround elegant octagonal tables.

Armchair for the Purkersdorf Sanatorium, 1902

Design: Koloman Moser

Reissue: Wittmann, Austria

Cabaret Fledermaus Chair, 1905-1906

Beech

Design: Josef Hoffmann

On

a

visit

to

England

to

research

the

Arts

and

Crafts

Movement

in

1902,Josef

Hoffmann

(1870-1956)

befriended

the

Scottish

architect

CharlesRennie

Mackintosh

and was

impressed

by

the

bold,

geometric

style

of

hisfurniture.

Mackintosh?s

influence

is

readily

apparent

in

the

finestructure

and

clean

lines

of

this

beech

chair

that

Hoffmann

designedfor

the

Cabaret

Fledermaus in Vienna. Hoffmann designed every elementof the cabaret which he conceived as “a

total

work

of

art”.

A

critic

ofthe

time

described

it

as

being:

“wonderful

–

the

proportions,

the

lightatmosphere,

cheerful

flowing

lines,

elegant

light

fixtures,

comfortablechairs

of

new

shape

and, finally, the whole tasteful ensemble. GenuineHoffmann.”

Cabaret Fledermaus Chair, 1905-1906

Design: Josef Hoffmann

Reissue: Wittmann, Austria

1920s

After World War I, progressive designers could take advantage of theemergence of new man-made

materials and production techniques to createfurniture in the glacially glamorous aesthetic of the

age

decade

was

dominated

by

the

race

to

design

the

first

cantileveredchair,

eventually

won

by

the

Dutch

architect

Mart

Stam,

and

by

theexperiments

in

tubular

steel

of

Marcel

Breuer

and

Mies

V

an

Der

Rohe

inGermany,

and

Le

Corbusier,

Pierre

Jeanneret

and

Charlotte Perriand inParis.

Charlotte

Perriand

with

(left

to

right)

EdouardJeanneret

and

Le

Corbusier

at

Le

Corbusier?s

architectural studio onrue de Sevres, Paris, late 1920s

Red/Blue Chair, 1918-1921

Beech, plywood

Design: Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

At a time when the monochrome palette of furniture designers such asCharles Rennie Mackintosh

in

Scotland

and

Josef

Hoffmann

in

Austria

wasconsidered

to

be

startlingly

innovative,

the

introduction of theprimary coloured Red/Blue Chair in 1921 by the Dutch architect GerritThomas

Rietveld

(1888-1964)

caused

a sensation.

Conceived

as

anabstract composition

of

surfaces

and

lines

in

space,

this

chair

isRietveld?s

three

-dimensional

vision

of

the

minimalist

paintings

of

PietMondrian,

a

fellow

member

of

the

De

Stijl

movement.

Rietveld

intendedthe

chair

for

mass- production

and

it

is

made

from

standard

lengths

ofwood,

which

require

little

skill

to

construct.

Originally

finished

innatural

wood,

it

was

painted

in

then- radical

bright

by

Rietveld

in1921.

Red/Blue Chair, 1918-1921

Beech, plywood

Design: Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

Reissue: Cassina, Italy

B3 (Wassily) chair, 1925

Chromium-plated steel, leather

Design: Marcel Breuer

Obsessed by the challenge of designing a chair to be built

in a factorylike

a Model T Ford car,

Marcel Breuer (1902-1981) concentrated on twogoals as head of the Bauhaus carpentry workshop.

One was to developfurniture from the same tubular steel as the Adler bicycle which herode around

Dessau.

The

other

was

to

design

a

cantilever

chair,

or

onesupported

by

a

single

base.

His

experiments produced the angular B3chair, which he nicknamed the ?Wassily? after his

colleague

tutorWassily

Kandinsky.

Unfortunately

for

Breuer,

the

Dutch

architect

MartStam

(1899-1986)

completed the first cantilever chair before him bymaking the 1926 Model No. S33 from gas pipes.

B3 (Wassily) chair, 1925

Chromium-plated steel, leather

Design: Marcel Breuer

Reissue: Knoll International, US

Model No. B33, 1927-1928

Chrome-plated tubular steel, leather

Design: Marcel Breuer

When Marcel

Breuer?s B33 ch

air went on sale in the

late 1920s, thespectacle of such a slender

chair without conventional legs or arms wasso unusual that many people were frightened to sit on

it. The B33 was abittersweet project for Breuer (1902-1981). He started work on itknowing that he

had lost the race to develop the first cantileveredchair

–

one with a single support

–

to the Dutch

architect

Mart

Stam(1889-1996), who

had completed

the

design

of

his

MS33

side

chair

inlate

1926. The

design

of

Breuer?s chair was

superior

in

proporti

on,detailing

and

structure,

not

least

because

it

was

made

fromnon-reinforced

tubular

steel

which

was

more

resilient

and

morecomfortable.

Model No. B33, 1927-1928

Chromium-plated tubular steel, leather

Design: Marcel Breuer

Production: Gebrü

der Thonet, Austria

MR10, 1927

Chromium-plated steel, leather

Design: Mies van der Rohe, Lilly Reich

Throughout the 1920s the German architect Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)collaborated with the

interior

designer

Lilly

Reich

(1885-1947)

on

thedevelopment

of

furniture

for

his

architectural

projects.

By

themid-1920s

they,

like

other

progressive

designers,

were

fascinated

bythe

possibilities

of

tubular

metal.

Mies

and

Reich were

intrigued

bythe

cantilever

chair, which

they

saw

as

the

acme

of

modernity

offeringthe

comfort

of

a

conventional

armchair

without

the

bourgeoisassociations

of

upholstery.

By

1927,

they

had

developed

thetextile-seated

MR10

and

cane- seated

MR20.

Both

chairs were

exhibited

atthe

1927

Die

Wohnung

exhibition

of

modern

living at the WeissenhofSettlement in Stuttgart.

MR10, 1927

Chromium-plated steel, leather

Design: Mies van der Rohe, Lilly Reich

Reissue: Knoll International, US

B32, 1928

Chromium-plated steel, wood, cane

Design: Marcel Breuer

The most refined and resolved of the pioneering cantilevered chairsproduced in the late 1920s is

the

B32,

designed

by

Marcel

Breuer(1902-1981).

By

adding

a robust wooden

frame

to

the

seat

and

back,

heeradicated

the

need

for

the

additional

support

of

cross- pieces

andhidden

tubes

to

leave

a

light,

elegant

structure.

Its

lightness

andmodernity

were

enhanced

by

the

textural

and

colour contrast of thepolished steel tubing, warm wooden frames and translucent cane of theback

and

seat.

Breuer

then

developed

an

armchair

version

of

the

B32

inthe

equally

radical

B64

in

which he positioned the arms to floatgracefully above the seat frame.

B32 chair, 1928

Chromium- plated steel, wood, cane

Design: Marcel Breuer

Reissue: Knoll International, US

Grand Confort Model No. LC2 Club Chair, 1928

Chromed bent tubular steel, leather

Design: Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand

When

the

24

year-old

furniture

designer

Charlotte

Perriand

(1903-1999)asked

for

a

job

at

Le

Corbusier's

(1887-

1965)

studio

at

35

rue

deSèvres

in

Paris,

he

replied:

“We

don?t

embroider

cushi

ons here.” A

fewmonths later he apologised after being taken by his cousin PierreJeanneret

(1896-1967) to see the glass, steel and aluminium interiorthat Perriand had designed for her Bar

sous

le

To?

t

installation

in

anexhibition.

Until

then

Le

Corbusier

had

furnished

his

residentialprojects and exhibition sets with the bentwood chairs manufactured byThonet in Austria

and club chairs from Maples in London. Perriand?sarrival offered an opportunity for his studio to

develop

furniture

inthe

angular

forms

of

the

modern

movement

from

industrial

ally designed for Maison La Roche in Paris and exhibited at theSalon d?Automne

in 1929, the Grand Confort was inspired by LeCorbusier?s favourite Maples club chair.

Grand Confort, Model No. LC2 club chair, 1928

Chromed bent tubular steel, leather

Design: Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand

Production: Thonet Frè

res, Austria

Reissue: Cassina, Italy

Chaise Longue Model No. B306, 1928

Chromed bent tubular steel, leather

Design: Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret,Charlotte Perriand

The first project assigned to Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999) by LeCorbusier (1887-1965) was to

design a series of chairs to furnishMaison La Roche, a house he was designing in Paris. He asked

for threetypes of chair: one “for conversation”, another “for relaxation” and athird “for sleeping”.

The first was the B301 slingback chair, thesecond the Grand Confort club chair and the third the

B306

chaiselongue.

Inspired

by

the

graceful

curves

of

18th century

French

daybeds,the chaise

longue combined the utility of tubular steel with thedecadence of ponyskin and leather. “I thought

of the cowboy from theWild West smoking his pipe, feet in the air higher than his head,against the

chimney-

piece:

complete

rest,”

recalled

Le

tte

Perriand

posed

for

the

publicity

shots of the B306 withbobbed hair, a daringly short skirt and a necklace of industrial ballbearings.

Charlotte Perriand on the B306 Chaise Longue, 1928

Chromed bent tubular steel, leather

Design: Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier, Edouard Jeanneret

Production: Thonet Freres, Austria

Reissue: Cassina, Italy

Model No. B302 swivel chair, 1928-1929

Chromed bent tubular steel, leather

Design: Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret,Charlotte Perriand

Inspired by a simple office chair, this swivel chair was designed foruse at a desk or dining table.

U

nder

Le

Corbusier?s

(1887

-1965)supervision,

Charlotte

Periand

(1903-1999)

transformed

the

utilitarianform by upholstering the seat and back in

luxurious leather. Sheenvisaged the back as

providing

a

solid

comfortable

cushion

to restagainst

“like

automobile

tyres”.

Working

with

Le

Corbusier

and

PierreJeanneret

(1896-

1967)

instilled

a

strict

discipline

in

Perriand.

“Thesmallest

pencil stroke had to have a point,” she later recalled, “tofulfil a need, or respond to a gesture or

posture,

and

to

be

achievedat

mass-

production

prices.”

Perriand

tried

to

persuade

the

Frenchmanufacturer Peugeot to adapt the tubular steel used in its bicycleframes for their furniture.

When

Peugeot

declined,

she

successfullypersuaded

Thonet,

the

manufacturer

of

Le

Corbusier?s

favourite

bentwoodchairs,

to

make

all

the

furniture,

including

this

swivel

chair,

for

theSalon

d?Automne.

Model No. B302 swivel chair, 1928-1929

Chromed bent tubular steel, leather

Design: Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand

Production: Thonet Frè

res, Austria

Reissue: Cassina, Italy

Barcelona Chair, Model No. MR90, 1929

Chromed flat steel, leather

Design: Mies van der Rohe, Lilly Reich

Among the most elegant and imposing of the chairs designed by Mies vander Rohe (1886-1969)

in collaboration with the interior designer LillyReich (1885-1947) is the opulent Barcelona Chair.

Designed in 1929, itis one of the most recognizable early 20th century chairs and is stilla familiar

sight

in

corporate

foyers.

The

chair

was

developed

for

theGerman

Pavilion

at

the

1929

International

Exhibition

in

Barcelona

aspart

of

Mies? commission to

design

the

pavilion

and

its

contents.

Asthe

German

Pavilion

was

to

be

the setting

for

the

official

openingceremony,

Mies

decided upon a throne-like form for the chairs andmodeled them on the sella curulis, an ancient

stool used by Romanmagistrates.

Barcelona Chair, Model No. MR90, 1929

Chromed flat steel, leather

Design: Mies van der Rohe, Lilly Reich

Reissue: Knoll International, US

1930s

Despite

the

economic

depression

at

the

beginning

of

the

decade

and

thesocial

and

political

upheaval in the years before World War II at theend, the 1930s was a period of progress in chair

design.

Metal

haddominated

design

experimentation

in

the

1920s,

but

1930s

designers

suchas

Alvar Aalto in Finland, Marcel Breuer, then in England, and BrunoMathsson in Sweden, tested the

tensile qualities of wood.

Alvar

Aalto designed and furnished the interior of thePaimio Sanatorium in Finland, 1930-1931,

as well as the exterior of thebuilding.

Paimio lounge chair, 1930-1931

Laminated birch, plywood

Design: Alvar Aalto

Production: Artek, Finland

When Alvar

Aalto (1898-1976) won the commission to design the PaimioSanatorium in the

late

1920s,

he

approached

the

project

as

if

he

was

apatient.

No

detail

escaped

him:

from

the

meticulously

planned

lay-outof

the

building

and

canary

yellow

paint

on

the

stairs

with

which

hehoped

to cheer

up the

patients,

to

the robust, comfortable

furnituremade

from

Finnish

birch.

Aalto

experimented

with

plywood

for

threeyears

to

develop

a

chair

which

would

ease

the

breathing

of

tuberculosispatients

and

succeeded

in

producing

the

first

pliant

chair

to

be

builtwithout a rigid framework.

Paimo, Model No.41, 1930-1931

Design: Alvar Aalto

Production: Artek, Finland

Stacking stools Model No.60, 1932

Bent laminated birch

Design: Alvar Aalto

Production: Artek, Finland

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the work of the Finnish architect Alvar

Aalto (1898-1976) was

influenced

by

that

of

the

International

Styledesigners

he

had

admired

on

trips

to

France

and

Germany,

but

he

wasdetermined

to

interpret

it

in

a

distinctive

style,

notably

by

usingnative

Finnish woods. Originally designed for the Viipuri

Library,these stools caused a sensation when

they were exhibited in 1933 withAalto?s Paimio Chair at Fortnum & Mason department store in

?s practical, stackable stools have since been in constant use

–

particularly

in public

buildings such as schools and libraries.

Stacking stools, Model No.60, 1932

Design: Alvar Aalto

Production: Artek, Finland

Zig-Zag, 1932-1934

Oak, brass

Design: Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

Reissue: Cassina, Italy

The

son

of

a

Utrecht

cabinetmaker,

Gerrit

Thomas

Rietveld

(1888-

1964)worked

in

his

father?s

workshop as an apprentice craftsman from the ageof eleven. In his early twenties Rietveld opened

his

own

cabinetmakingworkshop

while

pursuing

his

passion

for

architecture

by

enrolling

on

anarchitectural

drawing

course.

Rietveld?s

early

work

with

woodreinforced

his

later

role

as

a

radical

designer,

architect

and

memberof

the

avant

garde

De

Stijl

movement.

It

gave

him

the

technicalexpertise

to put some of De Stijl?s principles into practice, notablyby realising its zest for

oblique diagonal lines in this cantileveredZig-Zag chair.

Zig-Zag, 1932-1934

Design: Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

Reissue: Cassina, Italy

Crate, 1934

Red spruce

Design: Gerrit Rietveld

Reiusse: Cassina, Italy

Intended for use in holiday homes, the Crate reflects the growingenthusiasm of its designer, the

visionary

architect

Gerrit

Rietveld(1888-1964)

for

rudimentary

construction

during

the

1930s.

Like itspredecessor, the Zig-Zag Chair, the Crate was simply constructed frominexpensive planks

of

wood

with

visible

flaws.

For

Rietveld,

theuncompromising

simplicity

of

the

Crate

was

an

honest

response

to

theharsh

economic

climate

during

the

early

1930s.

Later

generations

ofdesigners

–

from the Castiglioni brothers in the 1950s, to the Drooggroup in the 1990s

–

have

shared his zest for unashamedly simple formsand banal materials.

Crate, 1934

Design: Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

Reissue: Cassina, Italy

Long Chair, 1936

Plywood, birch veneer

Design: Marcel Breuer

Production: Isokon, UK

When he arrived in

England

in

1935 as an exile from Germany, MarcelBreuer (1902-1981) was

eager

to continue

the

experiments with

tubularsteel

he

had

begun

at

the

Bauhaus

in

the

1920s.

Jack

Pritchard,

asympathetic

furniture

maker

who

had

offered

to manufacture

Breuer'sdesigns,

claimed

that

the

British

were

too

conservative

to

buy

metalfurniture

and

insisted

that

Breuer

worked in wood. The result was theLong Chair, devised by Breuer from a laminated birch frame

of two partsjoined by the seat as a wooden version of his earlier metal chaiseslongues. Pritchard

publicised the Long Chair as offering

Chaise Longue, 1935-36

Design: Marcel Breuer

Production: Isokon, UK

Chair No. 406, 1938-1939

Bent laminated birch, textile webbing

Design: Alvar Aalto

Production: Artek, Finland

Conceived as a variation on Alvar Aalto?s earlier laminated woodcantilevered armchair, the Chair

No. 406 was designed at the same timeas he was working on the Finnish Pavilion for the 1939

New Y

ork World?sFair and V

illa Mairea, a house for the industrialist Harry Gullichsenand his wife

Maire.

A

few

years

earlier

Aalto

(1898-1976)

hadco-founded

Artek,

the

furniture

manufacturer,

with

Maire

Gullichsen

andhis

own

wife

Aino.

Based

in

Helsinki,

Artek

produced

many

of

Aaalto?sfurniture designs and continues to manufacture them today.

Armchair 406, 1938-39

Design: Alvar Aalto

Production: Herman Miller, USA

T 102 chair, 1934-1941

Laminated beech, hemp

Design: Bruno Mathsson

Production: Karl Mathsson, Denmark

As

an

apprentice

craftsman

at

Karl

Mathsson,

his

father?s

woodworkingcompany

in

the

early

1930s,

Bruno

Mathsson

(1907-1988)

experimentedwith

making

different

types

of

bentwood

furniture.

By

combining

theseexperiments

with

detailed

anatomical

studies,

he

developed

new

methodsof bending and laminating wood to produce furniture which, he hoped,would give greater

comfort to the sitter. After seven years of researchand development, he completed this T 102 chair

with a frame made oflaminated beech and stretched hemp webbing on the seat to allow forgreater

mobility and elasticity.

T 102 chair, 1934-1941

Design: Bruno Mathsson

Production: Karl Mathsson, Denmark

Landi, 1938

Aluminium alloy

Design: Hans Coray

Reissue: Zanotta, Italy

When

Hans

Fischli,

the

architect

of

the

1939

Swiss

National

Exhibitionin

Zurich,

organised

a

open

competition

to

design

the

official

chairfor

use

in

the

parks

and

gardens,

it

was

won

by

literature

student

HansCoray

(1906-1991)

with

the

design

for

this

aluminium

alloy

Landi

chair,named after the

exhibition. Practicality was the priority for Coraywhen designing the Landi.

It needed to be light and stackable to enablethe exhibition staff to move chairs from place to place

for differentevents. As an outdoor chair, it also needed to be rainproof. Cora

y?ssolution was to add

perforations which not only reduced the chair?sweight but allowed rain to drain from the seat.

Landi, 1938

Design: Hans Coray

Reissue: Zanotta, Italy

1940s

Developments

in

the

design

of

domestic

objects

like

the chair came

to

astandstill

during

World

War

II

and

in

the

period

of

material

shortagesimmediately

afterwards. Ingenious

designers

and

manufacturers

thenharnessed

the wartime

advances

in

materials

and

production

processes

bythe

defence

industry

for

consumer

products.

At

the

forefront

ofinnovation

were

the

US

designers

Charles

and

Ray

Eames

and

theircollaborators

on

the

West

Coast,

helped

by

empathetic

manufacturerssuch as Knoll and Hermann Miller.

Charles and Ray Eames' demonstration room at the 1949 exhibition For Modern Living at Detroit

Institute of Arts

Navy Chair, 1944

Aluminium

Design: Emeco

Production: Emeco, US

One of the best-selling chairs in North America, the Navy Chair wasdesigned in 1944 specifically

for

use

at sea

by

the

US

Navy

by

theElectric

Machine

and

Equipment

Company

–

known

as

Emeco

–

and

the

Alcoaaluminium

group.

Emeco?s

founder,

Wilson

?Bud?

Dinges,

was

a

mastertool

and

die

maker

and

a skilled

engineer.

He

worked closely

withAlcoa?s

scientists

and

naval engineers to develop and test the NavyChair. Having completed the design in 1944, Emeco

put it intoproduction at its manufacturing plant in

Hanover, Pensylvania where theNavy Chair

is

still made today. Each chair is constructed by a smallnumber of skilled craftsmen, each of whom

is entrusted with adesignated task.

Navy Chair, 1944

Design: Emeco, US

Production: Emeco, US

LCW (Lounge Chair Wood), 1945

Moulded and bent birch-faced plywood, rubber

Design: Charles and Ray Eames

Production: Herman Miller, US

No sooner had the newly married Charles and Ray Eames (1907-1978 and1912-1988) arrived in

Los Angeles in 1941 than they began experimentingwith plywood in their apartment using wood

and

glue

which

Charlessmuggled

out

of

the

MGM

production

lot

where

he

designed

sets

for

filmslike Mrs Miniver. In 1945 they produced the DCW (Dining Chair Wood).andLCW (Lounge

Chair Wood). Robust and comfortable, these chairs weredesigned for the expanding population of

young

families

after

World

WarII

who

needed

light,

compact,

yet

inexpensive

furniture.

The

Eames

madethe

DSW

and

LCW

more

comfortable

to

sit

on for

long

periods

by

added

aslight

spring to the legs.

LCW (Lounge Chair Wood), 1945

Design: Charles and Ray Eames Production: Herman Miller, US

LAR, DAR and RAR ?mix and match? chairs, 1948

Fibreglass, steel, rubber

Design: Charles and Ray Eames

Production: Herman Miller, US

Charles

and

Ray

Eames

(1907-1978

and

1912-

1988)

designed

furniture

toadapt

to

the

owners?

changing needs. A

practical way of achieving thiswas to create a series of components

–

such as

the seats, legs andbases of chairs

–

for easy assembly and disassembly. Typical were themoulded

fibreglass seats and metal rod bases of interchangeable chairssuch as the DAR (Dining Armchair

Rod)

and

LAR

(Lounge

Armchair

Rod),developed

for

the

1948

Low

Cost

Furniture

Design

Competition at theMuseum of Modern Art, New Y

ork. Chrysler, the car maker, developedwelded

shock mounts to attach the fibreglass and, later, wire meshseats to different bases, including Eiffel

Tower-shaped

legs

androckers

for

the

RAR

chairs

given

to

Herman

Miller

employees

when

theyhad children. When the Eames went to the beach, they often sat on thesand in the fibreglass

?bucket? seats.

RAR (Rocking Armchair Rod), 1948-1950

Design: Charles and Ray Eames Production: Herman Miller, US

DAR (Dining Armchair Rod), 1948-1950

Design: Charles and Ray Eames roduction: Herman Miller, US

La Chaise, 1948

Fibreglass, wood, steel

Design: Charles and Ray Eames

Reissue: Vitra, Switzerland

At a time when the US government was keen to encourage US manufacturersto develop new types

of

furniture

and

household

products

for

theexpanding

post-war

population,

the

Museum

of

Modern

Art

in

New

Y

orkstaged

an

International

Competition

for

Low

-Cost

Design.

Charles

andRay

Eames

(1907-1978

and

1912-1989)

sent

several

submissions

includedthe

imposingly

sculptural La Chaise fibreglass chaise longue. Theiridea was to develop a portable, easy to clean

seat on which one personcould lie or several people could sit. Too complex to manufacture atthe

time, it was finally put into production by V

itra, the Swiss officefurniture manufacturer, in 1990.

La Chaise became a symbol of themid-1990s revival of interest in mid-20th century modernism

when

thefashion

designer,

Tom

Ford,

featured

his

own

chair

in

a

1995advertising campaign

for

Gucci.