Category: chair history

Monobloc Chair: Joe Colombo and Vico Magistretti

Stacking Chair Universale by Joe Colombo
Stacking Chair Universale by Joe Colombo
Photo by Midcentury Modern ZA


Selene Chair by Vico Magistretti (Photo Designboom)

What’s the world’s most famous chair?

The anonymous, cheap, light-weight, portable, waterproof, stackable, easy to clean, plastic patio chair, manufactured from one (ca. 2 kilogram) piece of polypropylene in a single process, or the Monobloc Plastic Chair, produced in millions

In a post Designboom describes the history of the (in)famous monobloc: After Joe Colombo designed the first all plastic chair, Stacking Chair Universale, a chair with two types of add on legs to make its hight adjustable, the Selene Chair by Vico Magistretti was the first all plastic chair in one piece.

Designboom should know, as its co founder Birgit Lohmann, worked for Vico as his personal design assistant for 15 years.

Airplane Seat by Warren MacArthur – Indexhibit (06)

Airplane-Seat-by-Warren-MacArthur

Vintage Airplane Seat by Warren McArthur
Found this vintage Airplane Seat by Warren MacArthur at Factory 20, another indexhibit find.

Mid Century Herman Miller Eames Chairs ad

Mid Century Herman Miller Eames Chairs ad

mid century herman miller eames chair ad – Chair Blog | Tumblr.

Better than the previous experiment: Tumblr from Facebook and then Press It here…

Throne of Tsaritsa Elizabeth

Throne of Tsarina Elizabeth, daugter of Peter the Great, 1742.
Throne of Tsaritsa Elizabeth, daugter of Peter the Great, 1742.
Via StyleFactory Blog.

Update: Changed Tsarina into Tsaritsa as per our Russian Editor’s request

De Stijl Magazine – J.J.P. Oud Bench vs Berlage Bench

J.J.P. Oud bench in magazine De Stijl
For me learning about De Stijl, a group of artists, designers and architects, but also the name of a Dutch magazine by the same name, is part of uncovering the history of chair design. Therefore I’m sharing this find of the scans of the first 3 volumes of the magazine “De Stijl” by … the University Library of the University of Iowa.
De Stijl magazine was edited by Theo van Doesburg. Leiden, 1917-1932. In total 8 volumes with 90 numbers were published.

The print is from the hall of a Dutch holiday home designed by J.J.P. Oud with benches integrated in the structure of the hall.

Berlage Bench Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

Although Hendrik Petrus Berlage was not part of De Stijl as he was from a slightly older generation of architects, he must have influenced the members of De Stijl. He integrated a bench in a similar way in the The Hague City Museum of Modern Art (Gemeentemuseum Den Haag). Unfortunately The angle of my lens was not wide enough to capture both benches at once:-)

Update 2023: later I found out that Oud knew Berlage and worked with him and thus is most likely influenced by him as well.