Objects

20 standout CHAIRS 20 iconic LIGHTS

20 YEARS, 20 CHAIRS Standout chairs that sit tight in modern design history

01 THE ARMCHAIR OF THOUSAND EYES the Campana brothers — Fendi 2015

A variation on the Brazilian brothers’ Stuffed Toys collection from 2002 is a cuddly chair for Fendi – created in collaboration with Galleria O. Project Roma – that features over 100 furry monsters. In a world that’s becoming increasingly smaller, spawning mass manufacturing and global trends, the Campanas continue to put their distinctive signature on objects made from scrap and waste products.

02 SMOKE CHAIR Maarten Baas — Moooi 2002

Although setting your furniture on fire might not sound like the best idea, in 2002 Baas came up with an innovative example that gave a new meaning to the principle of ‘deconstruct, reconstruct’. Originally his graduation project, the Smoke Chair fired off his career.

03 CHASSIS Stefan Diez — Wilkhahn 2011

Highlighting the benefits of cross-disciplinary design, Diez tapped into the automotive industry and applied the space-frame technology – used in manufacturing car bodies to create an ultralight multipurpose chair.

04 VICTORIA AND ALBERT Ron Arad — Moroso 2000

Like much of Arad’s work, the curvaceous Victoria and Albert finds its origins in the circle. He combined the universal shape with another geometric basic, the square, to achieve a design that is imbued with an irrefutably timeless quality.

FURNITURE – Do we really need another chair? It’s a question that arises at nearly every design fair, yet it fails to dampen our enthusiasm for an annual crop of new ones. Considering the time we spend seated every day – an estimated and astonishing nine hours – the appearance of new chairs shouldn’t come as a surprise. But in the midst of this extreme excess of items made to support the sedentary lifestyle, which ones have stood the test of time, becoming contemporary icons and ultimately earning a place among the world’s design classics? We selected 20 chairs from the last 20 years that have turned sitting into everything from an art to a science. – FK

05 PHYSIX Alberto Meda — Vitra 2012

A subtle nod to the Aluminium Group by Eames, the Physix office chair encourages dynamic sitting. With its flexible frame construction, elastic cover and stabilizing mechanism, the chair supports an active posture, which – following the news that sitting is the new smoking – is more urgent than ever.

06 CHUBBY Dirk Vander Kooij 2012

‘Precise as toothpaste. Heavy like oak. Colours like pure paint. Designed by a clown.’ It’s Dirk Vander Kooij’s cryptic description of Chubby. Seemingly sculpted from Play-Doh, the chair is actually 3D-printed from reused plastics.

07 KINESIT Lievore Altherr Molina — Arper 2014

Task chairs often look like machines. Signalling a tendency towards sleeker, less technical office furniture, Kinesit has an adjustment system for movement, height and lumbar support that is integrated invisibly into the chair’s slender body.

08 CHAIR ONE Konstantin Grcic — Magis 2004

Despite its misleading name, this isn’t Konstantin Grcic’s first (or last) chair. If you manage to design as many chairs as Grcic has, inspiration is bound to come from unexpected places. In this case: a football. Chair One launched a faceted trend that lasted for years.

09 PAPILIO Naoto Fukasawa — B&B Italia 2008

When a chair is available in as many shapes, sizes and colours as Papilio is, no-one can deny its smashing impact on design history. After conjuring a flurry of butterfly-inspired chairs and ottomans, Fukasawa even came up with a Papilio bed.