Design: 1940Production: 1941Manufacturer: Haskelite Corporation,Chicago, Illinois together with Heywood-Wakefield Company, Gardner,Massachusetts, and Marli EhrmanSize: 92.5 x 75 x 62.5; seat height 40 cmsMaterial: molded plywood, birch wood,foam rubber, fabricOn October 1, 1940, the Department of Industrial Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York announced a nationwide design competition, with the goal of enhancing the level of private interiors of all classes of society through a cooperative effort between designers, manufacturers, and dealers. The theme of the competition was “Organic Design in Home Furnishings,” with organic design defined as follows: “A design can be called organic if, within the object as a whole, there is a harmonious relationship between the individual elements as regards structure, material, and purpose.”1 The competition was supported by twelve renowned American department stores, who promised to sign contracts with manufacturers; one of the conditions of the competition was that the design be feasible on an industrial scale.
The jury members included, among others, Marcel Breuer and Alvar Aalto, whose chair made of two-dimensionally formed plywood was exhibited at the MoMA in 1938. Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen won two first prizes within the six furniture categories. Especially noteworthy were chair and armchair designs in the category entitled “Seating for a Living Room.” Starting in July 1941, Charles and Ray Eames began developing a process for the threedimensional molding of plywood in their Los Angeles apartment with the intention of producing first-class models with it. They fashioned a plaster inverse chair shell, which could be heated with electric heating elements. They covered this shell with several layers of veneer, the fibers running in alternating directions, and between each of these they placed a foil made of hot-melt adhesive. After sealing the mold, which they called the “Kazam!machine” owing to the noise it made, a bicycle pump was used to press a membrane against the veneer layers so that these clung to the inverse shell and melted the adhesive.
Within four to six hours, the pressing procedure was finished. By making incisions in and cutting out pieces of the veneer, a three-dimensional form emerged. In keeping with the competition guidelines, Haskelite was entrusted with producing the shell, while Heywood-Wakefield was in charge of lining it with a thin layer of foam rubber. Fabric designer and Bauhaus student Marli Ehrman created the cover. In the intervening time before the inauguration of the exhibition in September 1941 at the MoMA, several chairs and armchairs were produced. The legs were made of solid birch wood instead of aluminum as intended, for the latter was not available due to the war. The backs of the chairs were not, as originally planned, a bare wood shell, since at this stage the veneer was invariably susceptible to damage. Because of the war, and the fact that production costs were still high, the prototype did not go into serial production, thus missing the original point of the competition. [1] Organic Design in Home Furnishings, ed. Eliot F. Noyes, exhibition catalogue (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1941), inside flap.
Designer:Charles Eames and Eero SaarinenFree Shipping in February — Take advantage of free standard shipping this month on Case Study® Furniture. CLICK HERE for more details. Proudly made in California —Generations of Experience.Brasilia Chaise — Unique design brings a natural, curving form to any interior space. The Grasshopper Chair — Modernica's upholstery team has produced this iconic design for over two decades. It is made to order with a selection of 30 fabric choices and four wood finishes. The newest color in our Case Study® ceramics collection. Case Study® Stacking Powder Coat — A classic and highly practical icon.All the chairs in the catalogue: chairs, stools, benches and loungers. Refine your search using the menu on the right. Refine your search ( results): CantileverDisc baseFour legsOn castorsRockingSlideTrestleWoodCGTrader - 3D Models / 3D Designers5 Sign inChairs 3D models2,014 3D Chairs models available for download.
3D Chairs models are ready for animation, games and VR / AR projects. Use filters to find rigged, animated, low-poly or free 3D models. Available in any file format including FBX, OBJ, MAX, 3DS, C4DPriceFreeFormats3D Studio Max (.max) Crytek Geometry Animation (.cga) Crytek Geometry Format (.cgf) 3D Points File (.pts) Crytek Skinned Render mesh (.skin) 3D Coat Scene (.3b/.3b) Marmoset Toolbag Scene (.tbscene) Substance Painter project (.spp) Unity Prefab Format (.prefab) Marvelous Designer Pose (.pos) Marvelous Designer Avatar (.avt) Marvelous Designer Project (*. Marvelous Designer Garment (.zpac) Alibre/Geomagic Design Package (.ad_pkg) Cheetah3D (.jas)Poly countUp to 5k 250k+AnimatedRiggedLow-polyCollectionWeekend Sale 30%Best Match Higher price Email or usernamePassword Remember MeUsernameEmailPasswordBy registering you confirm, that you accept our Terms of Use, Content and Privacy Policy.Over the years, architects have designed chairs for many reasons.
For the early moderns, it was a way to furnish their own buildings: one thinks of Josef Hoffmann and the Café Fledermaus Chair, or Mies van der Rohe and the Barcelona Chair. For some, like Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen, chair design was a productive sideline; for others it was a temporary distraction, a way of making a statement in the absence of major building commissions. Today, when well-known architects are being invited to design motor yachts and plane interiors, designing a chair might seem like small beer. But the age-old problem of sitting comfort remains a worthy design challenge. To the long list of architects who have had a go at designing a chair, we can now add Tadao Ando, Hon. FAIA. Carl Hansen & Søn, a Danish manufacturer known for its long association with the great Hans J. Wegner, recently unveiled Ando’s Dream Chair. I visited Hansen’s Hudson Street showroom in New York City to see the chair—and to sit in it. The Dream Chair consists of a molded plywood shell as the seat, attached to a second shell that forms the base.
In frontal silhouette, the sculptural shape reminded me of a traditional Japanese kimono and hakama. The forms are punctuated by three ovals: a head rest, a hole cut into the seat, and an identical hole in the base. The padded headrest is adjustable, like a car seat, a mechanical feature that I found mildly disturbing in a lounge chair. The base is cantilevered, so that when I sat down the chair flexed pleasantly. The problem was that the edge of the hole that is cut into the seat also cut into my tail bone, and I couldn’t find a comfortable position. It was a small but persistent irritation, like having a tiny stone in one’s shoe. The manufacturer describes the Dream Chair as a tribute to Wegner, whose low lounge chair, the Shell Chair, was also on the showroom floor. That chair consists of two upholstered shells of molded plywood—a seat and a back—supported on three laminated legs. (In honor of the 100th anniversary of Wegner's birth, Carl Hansen has teamed up with Maharam
to release a limited-edition version.) I’ve long admired the Shell Chair for its utter simplicity—and, now that I finally had a chance to sit in it, I could also appreciate its comfort. When Wegner introduced the Shell Chair—in 1963—he had more than 20 years of experience designing chairs, whereas the Dream Chair is Ando’s first production chair. But the difference between the two designs is not merely the difference between the work of an old pro and of a neophyte. Wegner was not an architect; he came out of a craft tradition. His father was a master cobbler, and Wegner apprenticed as a carpenter before studying cabinetwork at Copenhagen’s School of Arts and Crafts, now known as the Danish Design School. Perhaps that’s why, unlike the Dream Chair, the Shell Chair doesn’t look like a sculpture. It looks like something to sit in. The offending oval hole in the Dream Chair is a mannerist gesture that has nothing to do with the chair’s function. Wegner’s chair, on the other hand, includes only what is required for sitting.
The single rear leg doubles as a support for the back; the decorative “wings” that flare out on each side turn out to be pleasant places to rest one’s hands; and the wings also work as aids in pushing oneself out of what is a particularly low chair, only 14 inches off the ground. Because of background, training, and sensibility, furniture designers and architects approach chair design differently. For example, architects are by habit customizers, since each building is a one-off project; production, therefore, is a means to an end. But modern chairs, unlike modern buildings, are mass produced, so manufacturing is an integral part of the design. Ando achieved the evocative shape of his chair by using three-dimensional plywood shells, which are difficult to mold and require additional sheets of veneer compared to Wegner’s two-dimensional design for the Shell Chair. As a result, Ando's chair incurred a considerable increase in manufacturing cost: In walnut and upholstered, the Dream chair retails for $5345, the Shell Chair for $3075.
But what practical end was achieved by using the more expensive shells? On the other hand, consider Marcel Breuer’s version of the cantilevered chair, the B32 (now called theAt the time he designed the chair, his architectural career had yet to begin; he was a teacher at the Bauhaus, in charge of the cabinetry program. This may explain why the Cesca pragmatically combines a seat and shaped back made out of bent beechwood and traditional woven cane inserts with the tubular steel frame. The armchair model has curved wood armrests, which likewise add to its sitting comfort. When Charles and Ray Eames designed what would be the world’s first mass-produced plastic chair, the DSR, in the late 1940s, like Breuer they separated the seat (originally metal, then molded fiberglass, today polypropylene) from the base. This separation accounts in part for the chair’s longevity, since the same shell can be mated with different bases: steel rods, tubular legs, wooden dowels, stackable frames, or even rockers.
Conversely, when Eero Saarinen, who had collaborated with the Eameses on chairs at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, designed his version of a molded fiberglass side chair, he was preoccupied with a singular concept. “I wanted to clear up the slum of legs,” he said. “I wanted to make the chair all one thing again.” His solution to this somewhat obscure “problem” was the Tulip Chair, which is supported by a single leg that flares out of a circular pedestal, like the foot of a wine glass. The chair was originally intended to be entirely fiberglass, but since that material is not strong enough for such a slender leg, the base is fabricated out of cast aluminum, painted white to give the impression that base and seat are one. Sitting down and getting up at a table both require moving one’s chair, but a chair with a heavy circular base is awkward to move, so Saarinen included a swiveling option. Making the chair “all one thing” proved to be complicated. The most successful mass-produced chair ever made was the work of a cabinet maker, Michael Thonet, who invented a method of steam-bending wood into a variety of shapes.
Sessel Nr.14, the famous café chair, was produced in his Moravian factory in 1859. The chair was made out of six pieces of bentwood that could be shipped flat and assembled on site with 10 screws and two washers (shades of Ikea). By 1930, the Thonet company had sold 50 million of its various café chairs. I thought of Thonet in connection with a recent series of bentwood chairs designed by Frank Gehry, FAIA, for Knoll. There are several models—a side chair, as well as an armchair, a highback chair, and a club chair. All are made of curved laminated maple veneer strips (less than a quarter inch thick) glued together. The playful designs, which resemble bushel baskets, are extremely light, surprisingly strong, and the flexible material makes the chairs very comfortable. Nevertheless, it’s unlikely that Knoll will sell millions of them since, like most architect-designed chairs today, they are very expensive. One Gehry side chair costs more than aWhether the high price is a marketing strategy, or because the complicated design is costly to fabricate, is unclear, although I would guess the latter.