Commercial Chairs

If it were possible for a piece of furniture to have an identity crisis, maybe the Table Chair from an Austrian design company called Buchegger Denoth Feichtner Design (BDF) would be a likely candidate. That’s because at first glance, you would think it was just a table. But it isn’t at all like most of the contemporary bar tables that you would see around.

As a table it looks elegant enough, with its simple lines and stark colors. It is quite minimalist in terms of design. But take a closer look and you will notice that there’s a demarcation along its thickness. It kind of resembles a laptop computer that’s closed. Lift the upper half and voila, you now have a chair! I think it’s an ingenious piece of furniture.

(more…)

While I’m not really a big fan of science fiction movies, there’s a fair number of them that I did enjoy. One of those would be the Alien films, starring Sigourney Weaver. I’d gasp along with the rest of the audience in the theater whenever it would seem that her character, Ripley, was going to be killed, and I cheered along with the rest of them whenever she kicked their ugly alien butts.

So seeing a whole line of furniture inspired by the Alien movies was a total delight for me. The chairs and tables in this collection are made from various recycled metal components like tools and bicycle and car parts. They are available individually or as a set.

Some of the seating options available are a high back Alien chair, Alien high seats, and a “Boss” chair. I’m not sure they would be suitable as seating for hotels, but that’s just me. If you own a hotel or a bed and breakfast and you think your guests would appreciate such unusual furniture – though a bit creepy – then by all means consider getting some of them. They’re sure to be good conversation pieces at least. Besides, they aren’t just for show since the items in the Alien furniture line are fully functional as well.

(more…)

Okay, the name of this lounge chair that I saw over at Plushpod just made me laugh. It’s actually called the Bad Tempered Chair and I am now wondering what kind of mood designer Ron Arad was in when he was thinking about making it. It’s true that a lot of people’s creative juices run more freely when they are beset with angst or are in a generally bad mood. Distress, pain, and despair somehow bring out the best in some people. Music, art, and literature are replete with examples.

Whatever mood Arad was in when he created this chair, there’s no denying that it’s typical of the bold, eye-catching and modern furniture for which he is famous. It’s a follow-up to an earlier design of his called the Well Tempered Chair. They are basically the same; the only difference is that the grumpy chair is made of plastic instead of sheet metal. Both chairs are manufactured by Vitra.

(more…)

The holiday season is supposed to be a time for cheer, for higher spirits, for joy and merrymaking. But since the weather is colder than usual this time of the year in most places, the holiday glee is somewhat dampened by the sneezes and sniffling that afflicts many people during the season. What I find amusing and impressive is that instead of whining and moaning about it, people like Danish designer Louise Campbell found a way to be inspired by it.

Just take a look at an armchair she designed way back in 1999, which she endearingly called the Bless You chair. According to her story, she had a cold one chilly November day and naturally used her handkerchief to give her stuffed nose some relief. Used and crumpled, it looked and felt different from the pristine piece of cloth she had taken out of her coat pocket just a few minutes earlier. Three months later, the Bless You easy chair was born.

(more…)

I’m not a big fan of superstar Tom Cruise, but I have enjoyed a few movies in which he has starred. One of the earliest ones I remember was Top Gun. I recall being enthralled with the how aircraft were maneuvered in the sky, the speed, their almost graceful movements. I just have fun watching these kinds of movies – or better yet, real air shows.

Someone who has a background in aeronautical engineering would appreciate these airplanes more than I could ever hope to. If that someone is anyone like Dario Antonioni, then he or she would show that appreciation and influence in quite a few ways. In Antonioni’s case, it’s furniture. More specifically, the Carbon22 line of experimental furniture.

Antonioni is the founder of a design company called Orange22, and his line of Carbon22 furniture is going to be exhibited at Art Basel Miami in 2008. As can be inferred from the collection’s name, the pieces are made entirely of carbon fiber. The pieces in the set include a stool, some tables, and a desk. These pieces were influenced by his background in aeronautical engineering.

(more…)

My range of knowledge about carbon fibers is very limited – almost nonexistent, really – but I do know it has many industrial and commercial applications. They’re used extensively in the aerospace, automotive, and sporting goods industries, among others. One of the things I found out recently over at designboom was that an Italian designer, Alberto Meda, in the 1980s took it upon himself to develop chairs from carbon fiber composites as part of an effort to create functional, everyday objects from such materials.

Meda came up with two models, which he called the lightlight chair and the softlight chair. As can be inferred from their names, the overriding characteristic they shared in common was their lightness. While he was successful in his endeavors, the whole experience was not problem-free. With the lightlight chair particularly, Meda found that he had to reduce the chair’s sections in order to enable the user’s weight to directly stress the structure. This required meticulous craftsmanship, which drove up production costs.

(more…)

To be sure, individual seating in restaurants, cafes, and bistros is popular. Still, bench-type or sofa-type seating is also a hit among patrons, whether they’re placed indoors or outdoors. For one thing, it seems more casual and more intimate somehow, even though a lot of designs are realized in luxurious upholstery or opulent leather. Even more casual, of course, but no less intimate are seats like Christine Schwarzer’s Poltergeist Sofa Bench.

The name is a bit perturbing – the chair’s name, not the designer’s. By all accounts, poltergeists are scary creatures. But there’s nothing frightening about this sofa bench at all. It looks bright, pretty, and modern enough to be used as indoor or outdoor bar chairs in many of today’s dining establishments.

(more…)

A chair worthy of a prince. That sounds intriguing. It brings to mind images of gilt thrones, perhaps encrusted with a few jewels. The Prince Chair designed by Louise Campbell doesn’t have any precious stones in it, but as the name implies, it’s associated with royalty. Modern-day royalty, not royalty from the distant past.

Campbell designed the chair for a 2001 competition that required participants to create a chair for Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik. Various aspects of it represent the facets of being a prince. For instance, the chair’s transparency represents how his life is open to public scrutiny. It’s also a representation of how both tradition and modernity exist side by side, i.e., the interaction between the classic lace motif and the technology used in the making of the chair. Would that commercial bistro furniture had deeper meanings behind their design.

(more…)