The Art of Sitting

[Glen Guarino]

Please join in the discussion: What is your favorite material in a chair and why?  

Where have you seen a chair or a sofa that you really liked and why?

Do you prefer to sit on a chair, a soft couch with lots of pillows or a rocker?  

Do you find sitting in the garden on a favorite bench relaxing watching the birds splash in the birdbath?  

Where do you have your best ideas sitting down, or walking? 

[Julie M.]

I like colorful velvet on a chair and this is one of my currently favorites chairs. Crazy colors and lots of upholstery going wrong... This particular chair is unique design by Valentina Glez Wohlers, a Mexican born London based designer. The chair juxtapose mexican and european aesthetics, showing formal design elements and quirks of both to create a cultural blend. The Nopal cactus symbolizes Mexican heritage and national pride.

My father is French, my mother is from Spain, so I grew up mixing cultures... Will try to post more chairs from my appartment and from my friends, they have some funny ones you may like.

[Brigitte Martin]

OK, this topic is just too irresistible. Great post, Julie !! Can't wait for the other photos. Velvet IS a great material for a chair, no doubt. I like it a lot myself.

My material of choice is: "Unusual Materials", and if it has a recycling aspect to it - all the better -- and this is one of my all-time favorite chairs made from paper :

cabbage chair
Designer: NENDO

Nendo designed the cabbage chair for the XXIst Century Man exhibition curated by fashion designer Issey Miyake to commemorate the first anniversary of 21_21 Design Sight in Roppongi, Tokyo.

"Miyake asked us to make furniture out of the pleated paper that is produced in mass amounts during the process of making pleated fabric, and usually abandoned as an unwanted by-product. Our solution to his challenge transformed a roll of pleated paper into a small chair that appears naturally as you peel away its outside layers, one layer at a time.

Resins added during the original paper production process adds strength and the ability to remember forms, and the pleats themselves give the chair elasticity and a springy resilience, for an overall effect that looks almost rough, but gives the user a soft, comfortable seating experience.

Since the production process is so simple, we thought that eventually, the chair could be shipped as one compact roll for the user to cut open and peel back at home. The chair has no internal structure. It is not finished, and it is assembled without nails or screws. This primitive design responds gently to fabrication and distribution costs and environmental concerns, the kinds of issues that face our 21st century selves. Thus, the cabbage chair fits active, optimistic and forward-moving "21st century people", the kind of people who, to borrow a concept Miyake expressed during a meeting with us, "don't just wear clothes, but shed their skin".


Here are some good images: http://www.dezeen.com/2008/03/06/cabbage-chair-by-nendo/