VitraEames Plastic ChairInformationenProdukte der FamilieDesigner Eames Plastic ChairsCharles & Ray Eames, 1950"The most of the best to the greatest number of people for the least." So beschrieben Charles und Ray Eames eines ihrer zentralen Ziele als Möbeldesigner. Mit keinem anderen Entwurf sind sie diesem Ideal so nahe gekommen, wie mit den Plastic Chairs. Die Grundidee einer einteiligen körpergerecht geformten Sitzschale beschäftigte das Designerehepaar über viele Jahre. Nachdem Experimente mit Sperrholz und Aluminiumblech in den 1940er-Jahren nicht zu befriedigenden Ergebnissen geführt hatten, stiessen sie bei der Suche nach alternativen Materialien auf fiberglasverstärktes Polyesterharz.Die Eames erkannten die Vorteile des Materials und nutzten sie konsequent: Formbarkeit, Festigkeit, angenehme Haptik und Eignung zur industriellen Verarbeitung. Mit dem zuvor in der Möbelindustrie unbekannten Material gelang es ihnen, die Schalenentwürfe zur Serienreife zu entwickeln. Nach der Erstpräsentation am Wettbewerb „Low Cost Furniture Design“ des Museum of Modern Art 1948 kamen die Kunststoffschalen mit Armlehnen (A-Schale) und die einfachen Sitzschalen (S-Schale) 1950 auf den Markt – als erste seriell hergestellte Kunststoffstühle der Möbelgeschichte.
Die Eames Plastic Chairs begründeten gleichzeitig auch einen bis heute weit verbreiteten Möbeltypus, nämlich den des multifunktionalen Stuhls, dessen Schale sich je nach Anwendungszweck mit verschiedenen Untergestellen kombinieren lässt. Charles und Ray Eames präsentierten bereits 1950 eine Reihe von Untergestellen für unterschiedliche Sitzpositionen. Daraus sticht insbesondere das so genannte Eiffelturm-Untergestell hervor – ein filigranes Gestell aus Stahldraht in einer unvergleichlichen Kombination aus formaler Leichtigkeit und konstruktiver Stabilität.Heute fertigt Vitra die bequemen Sitzschalen der Plastic Side Chairs und der Plastic Armchairs aus Polypropylen und bietet eine Vielzahl von Untergestellen, Sitzschalenfarben und Polstervarianten an. So lässt sich der Stuhl in unzähligen individuellen Kombinationen spezifizieren und an den unterschiedlichsten Orten einsetzen – sei es im Esszimmer, Wohnzimmer, Home Office, Büro, Sitzungszimmer oder im Restaurant, in der Cafeteria oder Kantine, in Wartezonen oder Aulen, auf der Terrasse oder im Garten.2016 hat Vitra die Untergestelle der Eames Plastic Chairs DSX, DAX, DSR, DAR, DSW und DAW um ca. 20 mm erhöht und ihre Geometrie entsprechend angepasst.
Diese ästhetisch kaum wahrnehmbaren Massnahmen geben dem Stuhlklassiker einen verbesserten Sitzkomfort in Kombination mit zeitgenössischen Tischen.Sitzschale (14)Weitere FarbenHopsak (28)Weitere Farben2)4)2)1)1)2)2)Sitzschale: Mit durchgefärbter Sitzschale aus Polypropylen. Alle Modelle (ausser RAR) mit Sitzpolster (an Sitzschale verschraubt) oder mit Vollpolster erhältlich. Die Vollpolstervariante besteht aus einem formgeschäumten Polster aus Polyurethan-Schaum, das mit dem Stoff Hopsak bezogen und mit einem Keder an der Schale befestigt ist. Bezugsfarbe aus der Farbpalette von Hopsak frei wählbar. So ergeben sich zusammen mit den Untergestellen vielfältige Kombinationsmöglichkeiten.Optionen: Der Eames Plastic Chair ist als Besucher-, Esszimmer-, Schaukel- oder Drehstuhl sowie stapelbar und mit Reihenverbindung erhältlich. Auf einer Traverse ist er im Wartebereich einsetzbar.Furniture designers can do some of their most innovative work for their most imaginative consumers: children.
Charles and Ray Eames created a cartoonish plywood elephant in 1945 that was (only much later) realized by Vitra in colorful plastic. George Nelson made a whimsical series of animal-shaped clocks. And Isamu Noguchi built famously novel playgrounds.Now Kinder Modern, a New York–based brand known for its carefully curated selection of 20th-century children’s furniture and toys, has tapped seven contemporary designers to create modern kids’ furnishings that meet its stylish vintage standards. In the new collection, a chalkboard-paint-finished desk and chair by Swiss designer Clemens Tissi eliminates any pressing need for paper. A rather large yellow chicken by French brand Guillaumit doubles as a writing desk. And a playful black-and-white bird with movable limbs turns out to be, in fact, a coat rack.Muuto CphMuuto OsloMuuto ChairChair LampChair SofaVan MuutoChair GreyOslo ScandinavianScandinavian ChairsForwardLife is full of temptations and especially my work life... I try to avoid buying my own props but thi...
Eames Child SEames KidsChild S ChairKids ChairChair 1944Chair UsaArmchairs ShelvesChairs ArmchairsPlywood ChairsForwardEames child's chair. Molded, laminated wood form of T-shaped back, square seat, the sides bending to form four flat legs; front of seat bent down to form short apron; back with small heart-shaped cut-out in center, attached to seat with three metal fasteners. Rope LadderBed RopeBed LadderFloating BedDesign FloatingBedroom FloatingAir BedsSmall RoomsSmall BedroomForwardLove the muted colors and creative design (floating loft bed) in this boy's roomPhoto by David Lewis Taylor. Written by Frances VignaWhile most people wouldn’t look at a material found in industrial settings and construction sites and immediately see its applicability to child design, a few forward-looking designers at the beginning of the last century understood the possibility of tubular steel in the life of a child. In comparison with earlier metal furniture, which was usually made of heavy solid cast iron that corrodes easily, steel designs are more durable and less expensive to produce.
And early twentieth-century designers and manufacturers were onto something. Tubular steel eventually secured its place in the design world, being used in everything from refrigerators to bicycles, but the material had modest beginnings. The metal became widely used in manufacturing in the 1860s, after the introduction of the Bessemer industrial process, which allowed for the mass production of inexpensive steel from crude iron. The now-obsolete process involved removing impurities from molten iron by blowing air through it, leaving behind high-quality mild steel, which quickly became the material of choice for building construction. The earliest steel tubes were made by rolling sheets of metal and welding the edges together. By the turn of the last century, technological improvements allowed for high-volume manufacture of seamless tubes, made by hollowing out solid pieces of steel. As demand for military-grade solid steel rose during the Second World War, manufacturers returned to welding, which was more cost-efficient but produced less stable materials.
Today’s welding processes, however, can be used to create hollow tubes that are as strong as those made from solid steel. Steel is a very malleable material, and Marcel Breuer exploited this characteristic when he designed the model B3 chair (later known as the Wassily chair, as it was a favorite of Kandinsky’s) in the mid-1920s, while teaching at the Bauhaus art school in Dessau. Modeled after an overstuffed club chair, the B3 comprises leather slings attached to a spare tubular stainless-steel frame, inspired by the curved steel handlebars of the bicycle Breuer rode to school daily. A year later, the Hungarian designer would push the material further by rendering a minimal, cantilevered tubular-steel chair that integrated the base, seat, and back into one cohesive form. Vintage pie table, 1960s. Photo by Lora Appleton. Breuer also enthusiastically employed cantilever design in the chairs he developed for children. In 1929, he designed the B33½ and B34½ chairs in tubular steel with blue canvas slings for Thonet.
Luke Baker of the Museum of Modern Art’s Architecture and Design department explains why tubular steel is an ideal material for children’s furniture: “It's lightweight, which makes it portable even by a small toddler; it's nonporous, which makes it hygienic and easy to clean; and it's durable and can hold up to years of use and abuse.” The chairs’ durable and lightweight frames make them perfect for a child’s use, and, according to Baker—who, along with Juliet Kinchin, co-curated MoMA’s “How Should We Live? Propositions for the Modern Interior”—their cantilevered design “provides a subtle springy sensation that's fun for bouncing.” Breuer’s furniture pieces, especially with the introduction of the B53 table, which featured tubular-steel legs, gained status as the leading designs for the modern children’s room. Mini Ant chair, designed by Philippe Nacson, 2016. The durability that made steel the preferred material for bicycles in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries also made it a favorite of postwar toy manufacturers, whose designs reflected the role of creative play in child-rearing in the emerging middle class.
As the processes for producing tubular steel became quicker and less expensive, toy design became less limited to traditional materials such as wood, which was often carved by hand and could dry out and splinter. An especially inventive twentieth-century toy is the Walkee tricycle, patented in 1938 by the Fageol Motor Company. The tricycle has one wheel in the rear, and two front wheels supported by arching tubular-steel legs that allow a child to scoot the toy across the ground. The tricycle’s designer, William Fageol, believed that tubular steel’s ruggedness made it ideal for children’s toys. And, following the rise of designated outdoor play areas in the late nineteenth century, playground equipment from merry-go-rounds to seesaw handles benefited from the rust resistance of painted tubular steel. Perhaps the most prevalent trend in child design that incorporates tubular steel is a base that can be reconfigured to suit multiple seat options. A hallmark of midcentury design, developed by Charles and Ray Eames, a metal base with a single-sheet injection-molded plastic seat worked perfectly in elementary schools.
As Luke Baker points out, combining numerous seats and multiple leg configurations results in chairs that are stackable and easy to store in classrooms with limited space. Later pieces such as the Series E polyprop chair, designed by Robin Day for Hille in 1963, would become ubiquitous in British schools. Tubax Table, attributed to Willy van der Meeren, 1950s. Designs that serve a variety of purposes by, for instance, incorporating multiple bases and inviting reconfiguration were a welcome innovation for many midcentury families. According to Baker, a multipurpose design “makes efficient use of space in the home, especially in the smaller modern apartments that began to crop up in urban areas in the early twentieth century.” Tubular steel was often used for multiuse child design, as its light weight makes it portable even for young children. “Some pieces of adaptable furniture also grow with the child and allow different functions to match their users’ growing mobility, autonomy, and size,” says Baker.