The ZIGZAG Chair

ZI GZAG C H A I R “It is not a chair but a designer’s joke” -Gerrit Rietveld

F E A T U R E S

The Zig Zag Chair was designed in 1934, however it did not represent some kind of breakthrough in design history as did the Red and Blue Chair. However, the Zig Zag chair represents the purest example of the combination between form, function, and construction, that was his goal. The shape of the zig zag chair does not contain space but it dissects it with four planes. (Back, Seat, Leg, and Base.) Each of these planes is an essential element to its design, and without one it would not function. “It is, as it were, a tiny partition in space that leaves the space untouched.

It is not a chair but a designer’s joke. I always called it the ZigZag.” commented Rietveld on the chair.

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Rietveld thought of many variations of the zigzag chair based

and even a child’s ZigZag chair. One of the earliest,

on his sketches. Wood, steel plate, single piece of bent metal

possibly the first, prototype of the zigzag chair was made

rods, are just a few examples of different variations he thought

of fibreboard that was fasted with screw an iron band. The

of. There is a ZigZag chair with armrests, holes, no armrests,

second prototype that must have been made more or less at

the same time as the first one, consisted of four pieces of

to a more simple form of assembly. There are many replicas

plywood. I noticed that Rietveld is thinking of metal, and

of the zigzag chair, however the orginal is currently located

fibreboard which means he’s experimenting with other

at the MOMA in New York.

materials to use in his furniture design which may also lead

G E R R I T

R I E T V

The Zig Zag Chair was designed by Gerrit T. Rietveld, a dutch furniture designer and architect. Born on June 24th 1888 and passed away on June 1964, Rietveld was a young rationalist architect in his thirties when he joined the De Stijl movement in 1918. He pared his designs down to basic cubist elements and often used primary colors to emphasize the different planes. Since Rietveld was an architect he designed and manufactured his works to accompany his architectural commissions. However, before his career started as an architect, he had experience working with furniture at his father’s carpentry shop when he was young.

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carpentry shop when he was young. He investigated the structure of chairs and other objects and then built them as constructivist structures. In 1918, Rietveld he designed his legendary “Red and Blue Chair�, which allowed him to get closer with various architects associated with the modern Dutch movement. Their goal was to purify their work, and remove all remnants of past styles and influences. As the years passed by, the De Stijl movement become more popular and so did Rietveld. Among his numerous furniture models, The Zig Zag chair, The Red and Blue Chair, the Schelling and Military series are known as eternal design icons.

C O L O P H O N Alex Sanchez GC 239 Kim Elam December 5, 2011 Headlines 34/13 Erbar DB Bodytext 13/25 Erbar LT Light Condensed

B I B L I O G R A P H Y Kuper, Marijke. Gerrit Th Rietveld. City: Princeton Architectural Pr, 1993.