Ro Ro Rocking Chair by Tomoko Azumi of T.N.A. Studio for Zilio Aldo & Cy

The Ro Ro Rocking Chair by Tomoko Azumi of T.N.A. Design Studio for Zilio Aldo & Cy

T.N.A. Design Studio is based in East London and led by Tomoko Azumi.

Tomoko on the Ro Ro Chair and the cooperation with Zilio Aldo & Cy:

It is a rocking chair made from steam bent beech. The front legs and rocking runners share the same curve, and the arm & backrest is formed from a single piece of solid timber.

Zilio Aloo & Cy is located near Udine, centre of Italian chair industry for years, has been supplying good quality wooden parts for Italian big players for more than 70 years. Since the recent shift of manufacturing to Eastern Europe and the far East, this local network of factories has been struggling to survive. I met a young successor of a factory, who is now trying to set up an own brand, then started a project to rescue their fine tradition of wood bending, which is brought to their area when it was a part of Austria.

Via T.N.A. Design Studio.

Lancaster Chair by Michael Young – Emeco goes Wood!

Hot from the e-mail a press release that is well worded albeit dated november 2009:-)

I have a soft spot for Emeco that as a long standing family run Chair Manufacturer tries new venues, be it it in advertising ( see Emeco: An Old Chair Manufacturer Goes Nude) or in chair design.

Therefor the integral Press release here:

Emeco Collaborates with Michael Young on Lancaster, a New Collection

Emeco, The Aluminum Chair Company, will present a new furniture collection by British designer Michael Young at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, April 14 – 19 in Milan. The collection of stacking chairs, barstools and tables is Emeco’s first foray into component-based design incorporating cast aluminum seats and backs with carved ash-wood legs. The ash-wood components are made by Emeco’s partner, an Amish factory in nearby Lancaster County PA, providing the collection its name, Lancaster.

“I have worked extensively with the aluminum manufacturing process recently, and with some of the best equipped factories in Asia. I was looking at the ways to join other materials with aluminum over the last few years and thinking about a chair, “explained Mr. Young.

“My work with the bicycle manufacturer, Giant, pushed me away from using standard section metal tubing. The sculptural form of the chair leg could only be made in wood. When I found that Emeco has partnered with a remarkable wood factory, the project gelled. It is an immense privilege to work with the Emeco family, I am sincerely proud in a way I have not felt previously. And I do feel the project fits me well with my love for and industrial heritage and what I consider to be the real thing.

I feel passionate about working with natural materials that live for ever; wood and metal are really the materials that connect to the human so there was no question that the richness of their aging processes is a prefect combination I felt would be contrasting in the Emeco collection. I felt that using wood would create a softer edge to a product whilst the aluminum would keep to sophistication and heritage.

For me the new chair was much needed, not as a vanity but as good sold piece of industrial hardware for both domestic and contract markets.”

Lancaster features an indestructible, cast aluminum seat and back in dark anodized and machine polished finishes. The wood legs are available in natural ash-wood and dark stain ash-wood. The chair, which stacks six high, retails starting at €315 ex VAT, and will be available in May 2010.

Michael Young

Born in Sunderland, England in 1966, he studied furniture and product design at Kingston University between 1989 to 1992 . In 1994 Young opened his own studio in London and a second think space in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik, which became his home for a short while. He has since developed products and furniture for such manufacturers as Cappellini , Magis and Rosenthal, bicycles for Giant, telephones for Native Union , interior projects such as Pissarro restaurant in Hong Kong. In 2006 he relocated his head office to Hong Kong to work with advanced technical industries creating a bridge between global industries employing the office.
He this years Creative Director of 100% Design Shanghai and Asian Aerospace events .

Emeco

Emeco was founded in 1944 to make all-aluminum chairs for the US Navy. Gregg Buchbinder purchased the company in 1998 and began a friendship and association with the renowned French architect, Philippe Starck, creating a series of products that united Emeco’s historic manufacturing capabilities with Mr. Starck’s classic designs for a new century. In 2000, Mr. Starck’s Hudson chair for Emeco won the GOOD DESIGN Award and was inducted into the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In 2004, Emeco collaborated with the American architect Frank Gehry on Superlight, a chair that utilizes aluminum’s ability to be both strong and flexible. Mr. Gehry’s chair won another GOOD DESIGN award in 2004 and was included in collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Pinakothek der Modern in Munich. In 2007 Emeco’s collaboration with Norman Foster “20-06” debuted at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile and won another GOOD DESIGN award, as well as a 2007 Spark Design Award. Emeco launched the Nine-O collection by Ettore Sottsass – the last design by Mr. Sottsass who died in 2007 at the age of 90, and Morgans, a chair designed by Andrée Putman for the Morgans hotel renovation in New York.

From a workforce of 15 craftsmen in 1998, Emeco has quadrupled its size and recently instated a second manufacturing shift for the first time in 25 years. Emeco has made over 1,000,000 1006 Navy® chairs since 1944 and now sells its all-aluminum furniture in 50 countries.

Thank you Dan Fogelson

Antique Chinese Wedding Chair

Antique Chinese Wedding Chair

Antique Chinese Wedding Chair 02

Antique Chinese Wedding Chair 03

Antique Chinese Wedding Chair 04

Not only in a blue mood but also in a Chinese design mood…

Via Antique Spider [ed:discontinues since posting] I found this traditional Chinese Wedding Chair.

The bride was taken to her husband’s home sitting on the chair right after the wedding celebrations. It was tradition. Her feet were bound as was the custom.

See also this painting.

Chinese Chair by Ren Xiaoyu

Chinese Chair by Ren Xiaoyu

As I’m in a bit of a blue mood – bit more blueish design here and blue fingers from migrating the site and cleaning it up a bit – here a blue Chinese Chair by Ren Xiaoyu. The chair is modelled after a Chinese character.

Found at Gallery Rhino3…I have to check that out…Ah Rhino is a modeling and rapid prototyping piece of software and they have more chair candy.

Hiroshima Armchair by Naoto Fukasawa

Hisoshima Chair by Naoto Fukasawa

Hiroshima Armchair by Naoto Fukasawa

This Hiroshima Chair by Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa comes from my pile of draft posts I’m trying to clean up now. I’ve more Naoto Fukasawa on the back burner.

Via Designboom