There is 23 types of chairs? Yes, and maybe more. No design object has been reinvented as much as the chair. Used since ancient times, the chair began as a symbol of status. «All types of chairs They descend from the folding stool, which Ole Wanscher, the great Danish furniture designer and historian Te James Zemaitis, conservative and director of relations with museums of the New York gallery R & Company. Royal and ecclesiastics used folding stools, ideal for their portability, on the battlefield and in the church. As for the ubiquity of the chairs today, Susanne Graner, head of collections and archives of the vitra Design Museum of Weil Am Rhein (Germany), points to industrialization: «The curved wooden chairs of the jungendstil and epochs Arts and Crafts They have a completely different appearance from that of the blasting designs created just 20 years later, during the Bauhaus movement. Industrialization brought new technologies and materials, so the idea of what could be a chair changed radically. «That explains that many there are many Different styles and types of chairs.
Whatever the need, there is a chair that adapts. «The game chairs, for example, would not have been possible 30 or 40 years ago,» Graner adds, pointing out how leisure continues to mold the design. Here we have collected a selection of Styles and types of chairs that have revolutionized the sector. So feel in your reclining armchair, raise the rest and put comfortable: these are all the types of chairs What do you need to know.
What are the most common types of chairs?
Although the folding chairs and stackable for its functionality and comfort, the dining chairs, specifically the auxiliary chair (a seat without arms and straight back), can be the chair type more common. «Of course, with the Covid-19, the classic office chair He has returned, «Graner adds. As the professions have been computerized in recent decades, ergonomics has played an increasingly important role in the chairs design.
How has the design of the chairs evolved over time?
«I consider the History of modern chair design It is mainly the history of low -cost materials – plywood, steel, aluminum, plastic – and how designers worked with these materials to revolutionize the seats, «explains Zemaitis.» First was the steel tube in the twenties. Then came the curved plywood in the 30s and 50s, and then the plastic in the 60s.
As in all industries, the sustainability It is a priority for many furniture manufacturers. To reduce the need for new materials, some designers have found ingenious ways to incorporate waste or recycle their products. Graner says that the Vitra Design Museum recently acquired a chair made with pieces of military chairs removed from the service. The chair is the work of El Warcha Design Studio, a Tunisian collective founded in 2016 that works with local communities by manufacturing urban furniture and artistic facilities.
Who are the creators of some of the most interesting chair designs today?
«It is important to be aware that the history of modern design is usually biased towards Western perspectives, so the challenge for us as a museum and as commissioners is to overcome these limits and see what other stories are in the world, such as El Warcha, for example,» says Graner. Two creators who Graner are Gunjan Gupta, Indian designer whose chair Old Bori Thronecomposed of everyday objects as jute bags, was presented at the 2021 exhibition of the Vitra Design Museum. «Here we are! Women in Design 1900 – Today»; and Jomo Tariku, an ethi-American industrial artist and designer inspired by traditional African design. Several Tariku chairs appear in the Marvel movie Black Panther of 2022: Wakanda Forever And his work can also be seen in the exhibition BEFORE YESTERDAY WE COULD FLY: AN AFROFUTURIST PERIVO of the Metropolitan Art Museum. Graner also highlights the Argentine digital artist Andrés Reisinger, whose sculptural chair Hydrangea It exists both in metach and real life.
The 23 types of chairs you must know
1. chair 45 / chair president
DWR / courtesy.