Chairs, Chair Design and Chair Designers
UK-based Gray Concrete created this concrete Chesterfield sofa for exhibiting at 100% Design London. The sofa is made by taking a mold from a real Chesterfield, which is then used to make a glass textile reinforced casting. The cushions are a part of the casting. Before making the mold, the padding inside the cushions was replaced with a rigid foam which was modeled to make “bum prints.â€
If you are looking for a stylish outdoor chair then the Rietveld Steltman Chair by Dutch Terrazzo company Tomaello in concrete is something for you.
Watch the design classic Eames Lounge Chair being manufactured in the Vitra Atelier on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany.
Austrian furniture manufacturer Wittmann still makes it, the Kubus or Cube armchair by Josef Hoffmann. It’s one of my favorites. Another omission I’ve never featured it here. The design is from 1910.
Amos Field Reid pointed me to the Thonet no. 14 project where 6 young UK based designers marked the 150th anniversary of the Thonet no. 14 in 2009 by replacing only the seats. More can be read on WC Frank’s site.
The challenge was to find a balance between pragmatic restoration and sympathetic innovation.
The tensioned Drum seat features an interpretation of the pattern that once adorned many of the Thonet plywood seats, is high on comfort, low in weight and can be fitted without tools. As a simple Âorganic material that lasts and ages well, leather seemed a match for the chairs aged beech limbs, whilst the strapping shares the bolt-it-together pragmatism typical of Thonet’s constructions.
This piece was produced in collaboration with leather craftsman Justin Parker.