Not all chairs make it into the hall of fame category that is being classed as a ‘design classic’ but the Zig-Zag chair has stood its ground in this category more than half a century.
Gerrit Rietveld designed the Zig-Zag chair comprising four planar elements, originally constructed from oak with brass fittings and later changed to cherry with more complex dovetailing, it was, and still is, radically different from traditional chair design. Minimal in section, and easily stacked, it is both practical and revolutionary.
Rietveld was very much aware of the discrepancy between the simple shape and the relatively complicated construction and said himself, it is not a chair but a “designer joke.” The actual goal of the design was to create a functional form which does not displace space but allows it to be perceived as a continuum.
Now officially produced by Italian furniture makers, Cassina (who purchased the rights in 1971), the Zig-Zag chair is, like most design classics, frequently copied and sold. You can spot a Cassina chair by looking on the underside for the Cassina mark and the number etched into the wood.
The Zig-Zag (not to be confused with the Irish puppets) is an expression of the ‘De Stijl‘ movement and is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
In 1918 Rietveld joined the De Stijl movement which had sprung up around the review of that name founded the year before by Theo van Doesburg, translating certain laws of composition that had already been expressed by the Cubists.
The work of Rietveld is defined by continual experimentation. The brilliant Dutch architect of neoplasticism designed and proposed numerous variations on his most famous models. He loved raw surfaces and sometimes whitened wood with natural reagents such as sunlight or salt. Rietveld created several variations of the Zig-Zag chair, including some with varnished colours and white sections, which are displayed at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht.
Rietveld possessed a duality of character which was exhibited in two ways. First a craftsman cabinet maker, working in a primordial idiom, reinventing chairs and other furniture as if no one had ever built them before and following a structural code all of his own; the second is that of an architect working with elegant formulas, determined to drive home the rationalist and neoplastic message in the context of European Architecture.
Cassina has produced a video showing the modern construction of the chair. Turn your sound down to avoid the bad muzak, sit back and enjoy craft and manufacturing goodness…
Designer: Gerrit Rietveld
Manufacturer: Cassina
Year: 1934
Price: £1,242 at Nest.co.uk
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