Arne Jacobsen SJacobsen 1958Jacobsen EggJacobsen DesignedJacobsen ChairsJacobsen StyleJacobsensWallcolorEggsForwardthe iconic Egg chair by Arne Jacobsen. Designed in 1958 but destined to be modern foreverDining chairs414/30353)Heart of House£149.991 special offerCredit options available find out moreChoose colourGreyCreamNaturalDuck eggChocolateBeigeCharcoalBlackCheck stockTell us where you are to check stock:123456789Add to Trolley1 Special OfferAbout this productCrafted with a solid wood frame and legs, this pair of dining chairs has a sturdy finish. They're upholstered in soft material and comfortably padded on the seat and back. The legs are finished with a rich oak stain which beautifully complements the contrasting fabric. With a 3 year guarantee, you can be confident that they'll stand the test of time. 3 reviewsOverall rating (4.7)StyleQualityAssemblyQuestions & answersAsk a questionBoring but important info*Prices correct as displayed but are subject to change. Buy Habitat Talia Pair of White Dining Chairs
Buy Collection Adaline Pair of Oak Effect Dining Buy Hygena Pair of Retro Dining ChairsContinuing from Part 1, in this installment I'll take a look at three creations which, although mostly derivative of Aarnio's Ball, also delivered some potentially useful improvements. As Isaac Newton and Noel Gallagher both recognized, there's nothing wrong with standing on the shoulders of giants. Not everything can be an unprecedented breakthrough, and there is often good value in incrementally improving and refining other people's ideas (as opposed to just blindly copying them). This simple variation on Aarnio's sphere isn't quite an oval, as its name would imply, but more of an egg. Indeed, its full name is Ovalia Egg Chair. Danish designer Henrik Thor-Larsen unveiled it at the Scandinavian Furniture Fair in 1968, with production continuing until 1978. The asymmetric egg shape, at least to my eyes, gives off an atomic 50s vibe, as opposed to the more streamlined shapes associated with late 60s space-age furniture.
The egg encloses the human form more tightly and has less overall volume than Aarnio's design, thus reducing the cost of materials but potentially creating problems for extreme claustrophobics. As with a lot of other mid-century furniture, it wasn't until the millennium (and its appearance in a couple of well-known movies) that mainstream interest in Ovalia revived sufficiently to justify bringing it back into production. That renewed interest also resulted in the deployment of an official web site with lots of photos and background information. The concept of an egg-shaped chair was frequently copied by other companies during the 1970s. The best-known variations, usually including integrated speakers and even interior lamps, were the Alpha Chamber (AKA Sound Chamber AKA Stereo Egg Chair) by Lee West, and the Egg Sound Chair by Starkey Laboratories. This extreme reinterpretation of Aarnio's design was a one-off brainchild from the multi-talented Victor Lukens. It was first displayed to the public in 1970 in the Contemplation Environments exhibition at Manhattan's Museum of Contemporary Crafts.
Lukens, bankrolled by his family's steel empire, was an eccentric visionary, with expertise in diverse disciplines including architecture, photography, film, art, race cars, and furniture design. He designed not just the pictured chair, but also the entire contents and layout of his apartment. Quoting from the Space Age Habitations section of Underground Interiors by Norma Skurka: The metallic bubble chair works like a one-way mirror. From the outside it reflects the images of the room and, in fact, the opening where one enters the chair is not readily seen. But once inside, with legs curled up within the bubble, the sitter can survey the scene invisibly because the walls of the metallic bubble are transparent from within. The polished chrome finish was undeniably beautiful and futuristic, but it could also feel like a fairground hall-of-mirrors. As Time magazine put it: Victor Lukens' reflective plastic chair tends to disorient rather than put its occupant at ease.
The chair's one-way mirror functionality, as described by Skurka, also begs an obvious question. Under what scenario would Lukens (or anyoner else) want to hide themselves from view while spying on what other people were doing inside the same room ? Back in the last century (late 1999 to be precise), I ended up renting a 1-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles in order to fulfill some work commitments. Although the living room was relatively small, I was (somewhat naively) determined to build a full-fledged home theater rig around a unique pod couch manufactured by Krypton Furniture in nearby Riverside. I had mounted an extremely heavy projector on the wall so amateurishly that there was an overwhelming probability that it would crash to the ground during the next earthquake. But surprisingly, although the mount kept drifting and had to be adjusted periodically, it never collapsed, and the whole rig performed above expectations for the two years during which I lived in Los Angeles.
The attached picture testifies to the precarious-yet-overachieving arrangement. More interestingly, the extra width of the pod proved itself to be a superior solution for interaction in social situations. It fitted up to three people, albeit in a slightly cramped way, and the uncomfortable isolation typical in ball or egg chairs was nonexistent. The extra wide field of view also eliminated any claustrophobia for the inside occupants, while allowing conversation with people outside the pod at a variety of angles. The pod couch also included two built-in speakers, which were used to deliver the two rear channels from my amplifier's surround output. The pod's walls blocked out all sound at right angles, so having speakers inside the unit was an essential requirement for watching movies or TV with full 5.1 audio. I still own that Krypton pod couch (as well as their fantabulous but seemingly no-longer-made AristoCouch). But unfortunately, given the personally verified benefits of a wider pod design, there aren't too many choices on the market if you're looking to seat more than one person.