The chair is of extreme antiquity
and simplicity, although for many centuries and indeed for thousands of
years it was an article of state and dignity rather than an article of
ordinary use. It was not, in fact, until the 16th century that it became
common anywhere. The chest, the bench and the stool were until then the
ordinary seats of everyday life, and the number of chairs which have
survived from an earlier date is exceedingly limited
“The chair” is still extensively used as
the emblem of authority in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom
and Canada, and in many other settings. Committees, boards of directors,
and academic departments all have a chairman. [1]
Well, enough with the history lesson, it’s time to see 20 really creative and modern chair designs that will make you feel bad about your own chair.
1. The Octopus Chair
The artist wanted to be faithful to the
animal’s physique and the natural majesty of its movements, therefore
Maximo attended to each physical detail of the octopus in order to make
the animal the unique protagonist of the whole piece. (Designer: Maximo Riera)
2. The Cut Chair
The “Cut Chair” has only one unbroken
leg, and creates an optical illusion that it’s about to fall. However, a
plate concealed by a thick carpet allows a robust cantilevered seat.
(Designer: Peter Bristol)
3. Pencil Chair
4. Fish Rocking Chair
Designer has taken soft perishable
sardines and found a way to use them as the building material in his
most recent project. The individual components have been created through
a process of lost wax casting, creating solid aluminum fish from their
edible counterparts. (Designer: Tristan Cochrane)
5. Milipede Chair
This arthropodic stool looks like a science experiment that escaped and headed straight for the bar. (Designer: Michael Samoriz)
6. The Empty Chair
For the campaign “The Empty Chair”,
designer made the symbolic empty chair, to support Amnesty in their
fight for freedom of expression. (Designer: Maarten Baas)
7. Shopping Cart Lounger
“Designer takes the common shopping cart and reapproriates it,transforming it into an object of leisure and design.” [1] (Designer: Mike Bouchet)
8. Chair For Cafe
“The design satisfies both elements
of functional and decorative design. The seats appears like a silhouette
of a coffee mug, whose handle can be used as a hook for draping a
jacket or hanging a bag.” [2] (Designer: Sunhan Kwon)
9. Beautiful Bloom Chair
“Made of deep soft folds of handmade
microfibre fabric stitched into a steel base, the chair is available in
Red, Moss Green, Light Green & Yellow. This lounge chair will make
you feel like fairytale Thumbelina in a beautiful flower.” [3] (Designer: Kenneth Cobonpue)
10. The Seatub
11. The Atar Chairs
“Gravitational Illusion. A fantasy
of optically excellent proportions. These chairs float between
naturalistic and industrial on a bed of impossibility.” [5] (Designers: Christian Andrés Parra Sánchez, Juliana Andrea Mosquera.)
12. A Chair With A Rug
“Designed for Italian furniture
company “Casamania”, the chair features a metal structure in which
‘over-sized yarn’ is woven through to create a softness. the main base
and seat are tightly woven, gradually getting looser in their stitching
along the length of the chaise lounge, eventually fanning out over the
floor making it an object that stands between carpet and furniture.” [6] (Designer: Sophie De Vocht)
13. Lathe Chair
“Designer started this series as a graduation project for the Eindhoven Academy and has since continued working on it.” [7] (Designer: Sebastian Brajkovic)
14. Him and Her Chairs
15. Rocking On The Beach
“Have you ever experienced to dream
that you are going to the beach? Breeze, the sound of waves and the
sandy beach, these make our feeling so good. Rocking on the Beach helps
you imagine the one of these experiences in your home. The plastic and
pipe shape is designed for the best seashore sound, which is researched
around the Netherlands seaside. The shape of chair with full of pipes
gives a strong impression as an electronic circuit or urban city
landscape.” [8] (Designers: Joon&Jung Designteller)
16. Tunnel Chair
Tunnel chairs are created by bending metal tubes, then wrapping elastic bands around, closing with velcro. (Designer: Noga Berman)
17. Splash Chair
“Ever look at macro photos of water
splashes or super slow mo’ video of a droplet slamming into the surface
sending ripples across a lake? There’s a moment in that 1/10 of a second
when the impact creates a crater or sorts, as if you were small enough,
it could neatly cup you. Inspired designer Michael Wendel created a
1/8th scale model called the Splash Lounge Chair, big enough for us to
sit in.” [9] (Designer: Michael L. Wendel)
18. Selfportrait Chair
“The theory behind
designing the Selfportrait Chair is very honest and simple. As an
introvert, graduate student Ka-Lai Chan found it difficult to express
her emotions lest her peers ridicule her. The stifled emotions grew like
a nagging tumor and are seen as those odd blobs on this chair. Rarely
do we come across an emotional side to a design accurately represented
as this!” [10] (Designer: Ka-Lai Chan)
19. Skull Chair
“Souviens toi que tu vas mourir”
(remember that you will die) chair by Pool, from the “Nouvelle Vague
(New Wave), the New French Domestic Landscape” exhibition at the Milan
Design Furniture. (link)
20. Puzzle-Like Inception Chair
Taking the chair archetype and placing
within it chairs that are progressively smaller. Each chair has hand cut
grooves on the inside edges of its seat frame as well as notches in the
seat back. These grooves range from 1/2” wide to 1/8” wide. The
mechanism works so that the pegs fit into the grooves of the chair one
size bigger and slides into place so that the horizontal edge between
the chair seat and back line up. The simple mechanism allows the chairs
to be taken apart and put together with ease. (Designer: Vivian Chiu)
