The other day a reader suggested I write an ideabook rounding up a group of the excellent chairs we’ve featured in our Modern Icons series. I believed it was a wonderful idea. I really like it when you help me do my job!
It was enjoyable to revisit the innovations of those designers, from bending plywood, experimentation with new materials and cantilevering tubular steel in gravity-defying ways. They had been making do with what they had during times of war rationing, and showing off the results of the latest technology at international exhibitions and fairs before and following World War II. It’s also fun to notice a few of the connections they had to one another, whether they had been classmates at Cranbrook, Bauhaus colleagues, mentors and protegés or buddies.
Birdseye Design
Wassily Chair
Designer: Marcel Breuer
Year: 1925
These chairs have been credited with being the first to use tubular steel. The idea was inspired by the arrangement of Adler bicycles.
Watch more Wassily Chairs in action
Crisp Architects
B32 Chair a.k.a. Cesca Chair
Designer: Marcel Breuer
Year: 1928
These chairs require the tubular steel’s possibilities to new heights, with an impossible-looking cantilever structure.
Watch more Cesca Chairs in interior layout
LDa Interiors & Architecture
LC2 Chair
Designers: Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand
Year: 1928
These chairs and their bigger sister, the LC3, were created to be”cushion baskets” of comfort and style.
Watch more LC2 and LC3 chairs in action
Alterstudio
Barcelona Chair
Designer: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Year: 1929
Designed due to his German Pavilion at the International Exhibition in Barcelonathis iconic seat with its simple X-base comes in an ottoman/stool and couch/daybed.
Watch more Barcelona Chairs in action
Tom Hurt Architecture
BKF Chair a.k.a. Hardoy Chair a.k.a. Butterfly Chair
Designer: Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy
Year: 1938
An easy framework supports a fabric cover, providing these chairs a light and decorative silhouette.
Watch more Butterfly Chairs in action
BKSK Architects
Risom Lounge Chair
Designer: Jens Risom
Year: 1943
Ingenuity that blossomed from WWII situation is shown best in this seat, which was originally crafted from birch wood and excess parachute straps.
Watch more Risom Lounge Chairs in home design
Feldman Architecture, Inc..
1006 Navy Side Chair
Designer: Unknown, but Philippe Starck has utilized their first designs as inspiration to get more recent Emeco collections.
Year: 1944
These chairs were designed for strength and not necessarily fashion, but they have the ability to have both in spades.
Watch more Navy Chairs in action
Dijeau Poage Construction
Womb Chair
Designer: Eero Saarinen
Year: 1946
This is among the first chairs to Have the natural form during the mid-century motion.
Watch more womb chairs in homes
Tracy Murdock Allied ASID
Eames Molded Plywood Lounge Chair
Designers: Charles and Ray Eames
Year: 1946
Manipulating plywood past its customary shapes was a popular pastime for the Eameses for awhile. The end result is a seat where form follows function with beautiful results.
Watch more Eames Molded Plys in action
Eames Molded Plastic Rocker
Designers: Charles and Ray Eames
Year: 1948
Initially these infants were made with fiberglass, but these days they are made with a more ecofriendly polypropylene. I believe this is the most happy modern icon chair around.
Watch more Molded Plastic Rockers in action
Kaylovesvintage
Eames Molded Plastic Side Chair
Designers: Charles and Ray Eames
Year: 1948 (although the version with those wooden dowel legs technically came 2 years after )
This is the more practical of this Molded Plastic Eames chairs, the side seat variant. The chair comes with all these wooden dowel legs, Eiffel legs, simpler metallic legs, and it also comes in an armchair version. The collection shown here is just one of my favourite Eames furniture pictures; thanks so much to Kay for posting it on Houzz.
Watch more Eames Molded Plastic Side Chairs in actions
Eleven Interiors
Saarinen Executive Armchair
Designer: Eero Saarinen
Year: 1950
Saarinen’s Executive Collection started years before, but this model, the Executive Armchair on wooden legs, is a true standout. Because of its beautiful and comfy form, it is more popular today as a dining chair or occasional seat it is as workplace furniture (its first intention).
Watch more Executive Chairs in home interiors
Prideaux Design
Bertoia Diamond Chair
Designer: Harry Bertoia
Year: 1952
Wire Bertoia chairs Aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Whether side-by-side, bar stool or bird, then there is a Bertoia for each room in the house.
(By the way, the ideabook I wrote about these was among my very first, and it’s sort of a stinkbomb, but check it out anyway.)
Paul Anater
Wegner Sawbuck Chair
Designer: Hans J. Wegner
Year: 1952
This is just one of a couple Wegner chairs I piled up for a single ideabook. The Sawbuck Chair is flexible, picturesque and surprisingly comfortable.
Watch more Wegner Chairs in actions, including Wishbone Chairs and also the sought-after Papa Bear Chair
David Churchill – Architectural Photographer
Series 7 Chair
Designer: Arne Jacobsen
Year: 1955
Like many in this set of designers, Arne Jacobsen was an architect that made down to every last detail, including statement-making chairs (we will see a couple more out of him in a minute ). As simple as it seems, the Series 7 has been created to provide comfort. This seat is copied all of the time, but no fake is as comfortable or as beautiful as the first.
Watch more String 7 Seats in action
Peter Tow
Egg Chair
Designer: Arne Jacobsen
Year: 1958
Jacobsen made his Egg Chair as a part of his design for the hotel lobby of this SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen.
Watch more egg chairs in action
Baltis Architects
Swan Seat
Designer: Arne Jacobsen
Year: 1958
Jacobsen also made some Cozy Swan Chairs to complement his Egg Chairs at the same hotel lobby. Would not you love to return in time and waltz to the Copenhagen SAS Royal from the late’50s?
Watch more Swan Chairs in action
Rachel Reider Interiors
Cherner Armchair and Cherner Side Chair
Designer: Norman Cherner
Year: 1958
This attractively curved seat went from manufacturing back in the 1970s, but thanks to its fan base of architects and architects, Cherner’s sons started copying them in 1999.
Watch more Cherner Chairs in interior layout
Today, I know I have left some iconic chairs out, so in the Comments section, allow me to know about any chairs you’d like to see here in the future.
Inform us Which of those iconic chairs best reflects your style?
More:
Take a Spin on a Swivel Chair
Totally Tubular Chairs
Fun Furniture: Seats in the Air