How to make a CH24 Wishbone chair by Hans Wegner for Carl Hansen

“EVERY PIECE COMES WITH A STORY – AND A HISTORY OF CRAFTSMANSHIP”

Hans J. Wegner designed the CH24 back in 1949, inspired by antique Chinese “emperor’s chairs”. European chair making traditions and Wegner’s own restless curiosity and sculptural aesthetics no doubt also played an important role.

Wegner designed the chair to be beautiful and functional – not to be easy to make. It was up to Holger Hansen and his team of craftsman to figure out a way to make the chair in serial production – and then try to sell it. The curved top rail had to be steam-bent under pressure, a technique that was still relatively new at the time. The characteristically sinuous front legs had to be turned in a process so demanding that it defied the limits of serial production.

All pieces had to be joined so precisely that even the smallest mistake in one joint would ruin the overall structural integrity of the chair. And then skilled weavers had to figure out how to create a comfortable and long-lasting seat with a material that had never been used in furniture production before: paper cord. And through it all, Wegner demanded that every CH24 – from the very first to the first few dozen (and later, thousands) lived up to his exacting standards: museum quality, no matter whether you make one or one hundred.

Every CH24 is still the result of more than 100 manual operations. And worth every 564 hard-earned pounds.

Skandium had the genius idea of using their window in Marylebone to show the process of making the CH24.

Florinda chairs by DePadova

Monica Förster has created some fantastic contemporary products for companies such as Modus, Poltrona Frau, Cappellini and De Padova. Based in Stockholm her work has a strong sense of pure form mixed with a never-ending curiosity for new materials and technology.

The Florinda chair, designed in 2011, is a mixture of beech wood and plastic combined in a simple shape that was conceived to erase the boundaries between zones, and lends itself to a wide range of different interpretations: from the dining area to the home studio, it can also easily adapt to restaurants, cafes and public areas, due to its contemporary look and versatility.

Bend Seating

Bend Seating was founded by Gaurav Nanda, a designer and entrepreneur. Gaurav always loved to create. As a kid growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, Gaurav would find himself building something, joining something, or bending something, whether it be constructing a teepee, painting with oils, or throwing pots. Once he made a screen printing machine, where he built a frame, stencil, and got a squeegee to pass paint thru. It was to mark the beginning of his t-shirt printing business. Needless to say, he gave it up for bigger and better things. Today Gaurav is doing the same thing. He is creating.

Jon Harrison’s ash kitchen chair

There are often interesting looking objects around the office, from chairs, to lamps, to tables and sometimes large mattresses make their way in to the reception.

Something that caught my eye was the ash kitchen chair from designer Jon Harrison. His website is surely a minimalist delight, although slightly more than comfortable as it appears to be missing any information about his chair.

Designed for his Royal College of Art show in 2008, the ash kitchen chair has yet to be manufactured. Made from a Corian base and back, the ash frame works really well against this modern material.

I hope that it does make it into production, at an affordable price as this chair could really take the place of many other chairs of this ilk. Jon Harrison certainly has a talent for producing products that are well thought out that, as consumers, we need.

Air chair by Jasper Morrison

When asked why he had selected the Air chair for the Design Museum’s 25/25 exhibition a few years back, Dieter Rams replied “I like it. Plain and simple.”

In these few precise words, Rams, who has been at the forefront of industrial and product design since the early 1950s, captured the laconic spirit of Jasper Morrison’s ascetically elegant, gas injected polypropylene chair.

Morrison began work on his stackable Air chair in 1999 when Alberto Perazza, the owner of Magis in Italy, showed him a length of tube made by gas injection, a plastic moulding technology widely in use in the car component industry. The process involves inert gas being pumped through the hollow centres of still-molten plastic inside a mould, creating enough pressure to ensure the plastic does not shrink away from the mould’s surface. The tooling is expensive, but allows for complex and aesthetically challenging forms that production runs allow for low unit costs, democratising sophisticated design by making it affordable.

My favourite thing about this chair is that everyone can afford it, and so everyone buys it. I have seen it in Cornwall coastal restaurants to Design Museum events and it takes on its surroundings with much ease… which must be why Rams likes the chair so much – much like his products they fit in with your life rather than the other way around. I love it!

You can pick up one of these wonderful chairs for approximately £85 from mydeco.com.

Jens Risom by Benchmark and Rocket

One of the first designers to bring the traditional Scandinavian values of function and craftsmanship to the United States was designer Jens Risom. As part of a new vanguard that helped establish post-war America’s leadership role in the world of modern furniture design and manufacturing, Risom (born in Copenhagen in 1916) was highly influenced by his award-winning architect-father who encouraged Jens to pursue academic studies in business and contemporary design.

After completing two years at the Business College of Niels Brock in Copenhagen, Risom worked briefly for Danish architect Ernst Kuhn and he created several furniture designs for Gustav Weinreich.

You can read more about Jens Risom at Wikipedia.

At 94, Risom has collaborated with Rocket gallery and Benchmark, who have jointly secured the European rights to reissue his 1950s and 1960s furniture designs.

This first collection of nine pieces has been creatively directed by Jonathan Stephenson of Rocket and made by Sean Sutcliffe and Terence Conran’s Benchmark Furniture company in their Dorset and Berkshire workshops – with the close involvement of Risom himself.

Risom has also worked for Ralph Pucci to create a collection of furniture… this work is an evolution of Risom’s work and it is clear to see that as needs have changed in design, so has this designers work.

Still with some of his signatures but with a greater amount of upholstery and cushioning, these pieces are suitable for today’s homes.

Poul Kjærholm’s PK22™

Poul Kjærholm was a trained carpenter who continued his studies at the Danish School of Arts and Crafts. He had a particular interest in different construction materials; especially steel which he considered a natural material with the same artistic fineness as other natural materials.

Poul Kjærholm was employed at Fritz Hansen for about a year, where he designed a number of noteworthy chair prototypes.

In 1955 Poul Kjærholm initiated his collaboration with manufacturer Ejvind Kold Christensen, which lasted until Poul Kjærholm’s death in 1980. In 1982, Fritz Hansen took over the production and sales of “The Kjærholm Collection”, developed from 1951 to 1967.

My favourite of Kjærholm’s designs is the PK22™ low chair which, although extremely angular in design, an unusual shape for a chair, is very comfortable to sit in and works perfectly as an small easy chair in a living room or an office reception, which explains its popularity for over 50 years.

The discrete and elegant lounge chair PK22™ epitomizes the work of Poul Kjærholm and his search for the ideal type-form and industrial dimension, which was always present in his work. The profile of the steel frame structure originates from his graduation project, the “Element” Chair (PK25™), from the School of Applied Arts in Copenhagen. On the PK22™, the structure was divided into separate elements due to design improvements and for economical production.

The PK22™ was an immediate commercial and critical success. In 1957, the chair was awarded the Grand Prix at the Milan Triennale, the world’s premier design fair. The prize catapulted Kjærholm’s career and immediately he became a name on the international scene and has enjoyed this position ever since.

The PK22™ is available in wicker, suede or leather with a base in satin-brushed stainless steel.

For more information you can check out the Republic of Fritz Hansen website.

VW+BS shell chair for Decode London

I try not to post very often about products. It’s a bit of a mission of mine to have a good mixture of product, graphic, architecture, style and so on but really easy to fall into the product posting cycle. Well, with so many great products available and such beautiful architectural shapes to admire it is hard sticking to my mission.

Today’s weak spot goes to the great VW+BS for the Shell chair. I saw this in the flesh at The Tramshed during London Design Festival 2010 whilst knocking back ale and being an all-round groupie.

“As its name indicates, the shell chair has been designed by looking at how an organism in nature develops its structure. Layer by layer like a tree or a sea shell, and based on a repetitive but adaptable equation, the 4mm wire rods forming the seat, follow the circular rim of the chair. Equally, we wanted the chair to have a very straightforward and welcoming appearance. Symmetry, minimal structure and comfort characterise this outdoor and indoor seat.”

Hand-Felted Metal Folding Chairs by Tanya Aguiniga

The metal folding chair is a staple for small space living. How does one live without these hidden behind the sofa, or in that corner near the desk, I don’t know.

I love to see a recognisable design taken to new places. Regular metal folding chairs are transformed into something else entirely with colourful hand-wrought wool felt. Designer Tanya Aguiniga makes each to order.

Each chair is $1,200, so the process must be pretty laborious. Aguiniga has also done something similar to the iconic Eames DCM chairs.

Diaries of a chair geek

I love my iPhone, and I love chairs, so imagine my excitement when I saw that this app was available.  Is that a little too geeky for a Friday morning?

The app works by showing silhouettes of design icons and then asking you for the name, designer or date.  It gives you a running score of how well you are doing, so it can get quite addictive.

It was developed by Mark Stevens from Fail Forwards in Copenhagen and costs 59p from the App Store.



”Whether you’re a design aficionado, student, or want to score a bargain at a bric-a-brac market, the Design Icon series gets you up to speed on the design classics,” Stevens says. “The world’s most iconic chairs are featured. The majority are classics of the 20th Century, though a few famous 19th and 21st century pieces are included. Currently there are more than 100 chairs featured.”