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NesTable

vitra > Styling

The need for private spheres and quiet places to concentrate has been recognised in today's open space office environments. Sofa lounges and comfortable seating areas are now readily provided - but how do you work in a lounge chair? By using NesTable with its fully adjustable platform height and inclination. Thanks to the shape of its base, this versatile table can be drawn up closely to most types of seating.

AC 5 Studio

vitra > Office Chair

AC 5 Studio is the reductive, informal model of the AC 5 Group of office chairs. Equipped with functions suited for its intended applications – a rocking mechanism and a height adjustment feature – AC 5 Studio provides a comfortable seating solution for touchdown workstations occupied by changing users. Its characteristic angled backrest is not just a unifying visual element shared by all chairs of the AC 5 Group; thanks to its shape, the flexible backrest structure also offers considerable freedom of movement and promotes dynamic sitting.

Akari 26A

vitra > Styling

The Akari Light Sculptures (1951) by Isamu Noguchi are a series of luminaires, handcrafted from traditional washi paper by Japanese artisans. ‘The harshness of electricity is thus transformed through the magic of paper back to the light of our origin – the sun.’ (Noguchi)

Akari 7A

vitra > Styling

The Akari Light Sculptures (1951) by Isamu Noguchi are a series of luminaires, handcrafted from traditional washi paper by Japanese artisans. ‘The harshness of electricity is thus transformed through the magic of paper back to the light of our origin – the sun.’ (Noguchi)

Coat Dots

vitra > Styling

The Coat Dots by Hella Jongerius are mounted on an extendable pin that can be pulled slightly away from the wall to provide a handy peg for jackets and clothes hangers. At the same time, they can also simply be utilised as decorative wall elements. The Coat Dots are available in sets of three colour-coordinated balls including mounting material.

Embroidered Pillows - Double Heart, red

vitra > Styling

In 1957, Alexander Girard designed the interior of the legendary Miller House and decorated the so-called 'conversation pit' in the living room with specially embroidered pillow covers. The Embroidered Pillows feature motifs from the vast store of graphic images by Girard.

Grand Executive Highback

vitra > Office Chair

The prestigious Grand Executive armchair combines soft, high-quality leather upholstery with the individually adaptable FlowMotion mechanism for exceptional comfort. The Grand Executive Highback model is equipped with an adjustable neck cushion.

Mariposa Club Armchair

vitra > Chair

The Mariposa Club Armchair is suitable for high-quality, compact urban living spaces. Unlike the sofas of the Mariposa family, it does not have adjustable side panels and backrests. However, despite smaller dimensions, the armchair follows the design of its larger counterparts, offering pleasantly soft upholstery and a high degree of comfort. The covers come in a wide selection of robust fabrics and diverse colours.

Soft Modular Sofa four-seater, platform, Chaise Longue

vitra > Sofa

With carefully balanced proportions, great comfort and a conscious renunciation of decorative details, the Soft Modular Sofa (2016) by Jasper Morrison unites the characteristics of a modular lounge sofa in its purest form.

Soft Pad Chair EA 223 – Lounge

vitra > Chair

The stool EA 223 by Charles and Ray Eames allows sitters to prop up their feet while relaxing in the matching lounge chair <a href="/en-me/product/details/soft-pad-chair-ea-222">EA 222</a>. As a pair, they make a perfect combination for long cosy evenings with a good book. The leather or fabric covers come in a wide range of inviting colours.

Wooden Doll Cat Large

vitra > Styling

Alexander Girard originally created the Wooden Dolls (1952), a whimsical assortment of figures both joyful and grim, for his own home. Today they add a charming touch to any interior.

Wooden Doll No. 18

vitra > Styling

Alexander Girard originally created the Wooden Dolls (1952), a whimsical assortment of figures both joyful and grim, for his own home. Today they add a charming touch to any interior.

Embroidered Pillows - Home Sweet Home, light grey

vitra > Styling

Alexander Girard attracted a great deal of attention with his interior design of the legendary Miller House, for which he personally selected each individual object. The centrepiece of the house was a so-called 'conversation pit', a sunken seating area outfitted with decorative pillows made specifically for this setting. The embroidered pillow 'Home Sweet Home' is pleasantly firm and elaborately stitched.

Magnet Dots

vitra > Styling

Magnet Dots are reminiscent of pebble stones due to their organically shaped contours. The powerful magnets with robust plastic covers come in four different colour sets, each containing five magnets.

Softshell Chair, five-star base

vitra > Chair

Designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, the Softshell Chair mounted on a height-adjustable five-star swivel base with castors is ideal for studio offices. Its contours and quality materials give it an inviting appeal, while the soft upholstery guarantees superb comfort.

Wooden Doll No. 17

vitra > Styling

Alexander Girard originally created the Wooden Dolls (1952), a whimsical assortment of figures both joyful and grim, for his own home. Today they add a charming touch to any interior.

Desk Clocks - Cone Clock

vitra > Styling

The many accessories created for the home by George Nelson include a variety of table clocks. Representing a selection of these classic designs, the Desk Clocks offer a refreshing alternative to conventional clocks. Equipped with high-quality quartz movements, the charm of these decorative timepieces is equalled by their precision.

Eames Plastic Side Chair PSCC

vitra > Chair

The varied selection of bases for the Plastic Chairs by Charles and Ray Eames makes it easy to find the right model for a wide range of locations and situations. For instance, the Pivot Side Chair Cast Base on Castors (PSCC) is ideal for home offices. Thanks to the organically shaped, swivel-mounted seat shell with shock-absorbing suspension and continuous height adjustment, the chair ensures superb comfort.

Grand Sofà Bench

vitra > Bench

Grand Sofà (2017) is Antonio Citterio's interpretation of luxurious comfort and contemporary design. The designer's Italian flair for lightness and elegance is united with the trademark quality and precision of the Swiss company Vitra.

Miniatures .02

vitra > Styling

Belgian designer and interior architect Maarten Van Severen was an idiosyncratic figure on the international design scene. His work was noted for its intense engagement with a few basic furniture types, such as the chair, table, chaise longue, shelving and cabinet, for which he developed fundamental solutions. Like Jean Prouvé, Van Severen regarded his experiments in the workshop and his close physical contact with the materials to be a vital element of the design process. This was the reason why, up until the mid 90s, when he started working with industrial partners, he produced all his designs in the workshop that he had set up in 1987. This included the CNº II chair (later .02), introduced in 1992. This chair, with its simplicity of form, has a seat and backrest crafted from a continuous piece of material – a sheet of aluminium or thin plywood – set on an aluminium base. The CNº II formed the basis for his subsequent collaboration with Vitra to develop the .03 chair, which was introduced to the market in 1998 and marked his international emergence as a designer.

Wooden Doll No. 19

vitra > Styling

Alexander Girard originally created the Wooden Dolls (1952), a whimsical assortment of figures both joyful and grim, for his own home. Today they add a charming touch to any interior.

Miniatures 3-Benet Skalstol

vitra > Styling

Hans J. Wegner is widely considered to be one of the major innovators of traditional furniture making and the father of Danish Modernism. At the time when he created his 3-Benet Skalstol design, the two-dimensional forming of laminated wood and plywood was no longer a novelty. However, in order to stabilize the legs, in this model Wegner refined the existing technology by dividing the frame of glued laminated wood at the joints in the legs into two separate strands, the angles of which held each other in check. In terms of design and colour, he was strongly influenced here by Japanese tradition. This model only ever existed as a prototype, both with and without upholstery.

Miniatures Tulip Chair

vitra > Styling

The Tulip Chair is one of a series of chairs, stools, and tables developed by Eero Saarinen within a five-year period. The characteristic feature of the series is that the supporting structure has been pared to a central supporting stem »like a wineglass« in order to emphasise the uniformity of table and chair. Eero Saarinen describes the Tulip Chair: »The bases of tables and chairs in a typical furniture arrangement create an ugly, confusing, and restless world. I wanted to design a chair as an integrated whole once again. All important furniture of the past always had a holistic structure, from King Tut's chair to that of Thomas Chippendale. Today, we are parting ways with this holism with our predilection for plastic and laminated wood shells. I am looking forward to the point when the plastics industry will be capable of manufacturing the chair using just one material, the way I have designed it.«

Miniatures Wiggle Side Chair

vitra > Styling

As early as the 1960s, cardboard furniture emerged as a cheap and light alternative to traditional furniture. At that time, slotting and folding as well as supports were used to ensure that the cardboard could bear sufficient weight. Nevertheless, cardboard furniture hardly had a chance against plastic furniture, which was equally light. Frank O. Gehry discovered a process which enabled cardboard furniture to be made in massive blocks – cardboard sculptures, as it were. »One day I saw a stack of corrugated cardboard in my office; it was the material I used to build my architectural models. And I started playing around with it, gluing it together and then cutting it into shape with a handsaw and a pocket-knife«. Gehry called the material made of corrugated cardboard glued in layers that ran at right angles to each other »Edge Board«. In 1972 he brought out a series of extraordinarily stable cardboard furniture called »Easy Edges«.

Miniatures RAR

vitra > Styling

The Fiberglass Chairs are rare examples of a satisfying synthesis of formal and technical innovation. For the first time in the history of design, Charles and Ray Eames utilized the unlimited malleability of plastic for the development of a comfortable seating shell that corresponds to the shape of the human body. The idea of making a three-dimensional molded shell goes back to a design from 1940. The original attempt to make the shell out of plywood was unsuccessful, however, due to the extreme conditions necessary to mold the material. Only with the advent of fiberglass technology was it possible to achieve satisfying results. The first Fiberglass Chair went into production in 1950. After years of experimentation, Charles and Ray Eames were able to realize their goal: an industrially produced chair that is inexpensive, sturdy, and comfortable. The Fiberglass Chairs come in several versions: with an A-shaped shell (armchair) or S-shaped shell (side chair) and on different bases, one of which is the famous »Eiffel Tower« base. Until 1968, Herman Miller also produced a rocking chair base. Every Herman Miller employee who expected a baby received it as a gift until 1984.

Miniatures MR 90 Barcelona

vitra > Styling

Mies van der Rohe designed the German pavilion and corresponding furniture for the 1929 world's fair in Barcelona. Among other things, his pavilion served as the setting for the inaugural ceremony led by the Spanish royal couple, Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenia. While Mies van der Rohe implemented his ideas of avant garde steel and glass architecture for the building design, he drew his inspiration for the furniture from historic models. Mies van der Rohe took as his starting point the ancient, scissors-shaped collapsible folding chair, already a symbol of power among Egyptian rulers. In keeping with the occasion, he adopted the representative qualities of the scissors chair, although he does without the folding function and interprets it afresh. In order to match the overall impression of luxury in the pavilion, Mies van der Rohe chose not to use wood like the historic models, but instead employed chrome-plated steel strip and leather upholstery with button stitching. The pavilion was torn down after the fair. However, along with the furniture, it was retrospectively acknowledged as a showcase for the »International Style« that had taken hold throughout the world. The Barcelona pavilion was reconstructed and rebuilt in 1986.

Miniatures Karuselli

vitra > Styling

The idea of creating a glassfibre chair based on humanbody's shape was planned already in late 1950s. Glassfibre, the new material, was just invented and came to Finland in late 50s but was very expensive to use. Kukkapuro realized the first model in 1958–1959 and in early 1960s when glassfibre became cheaper Kukkapuro continued the development of Karuselli which finally was produced by the Finnish furniture company Haimi Oy in 1964. The chair was designed to provide a relaxing sitting position as possible. The basic shape has been obtained through the use of flexible steel mesh and conforms with the human anatomy. The swiveling seat which was of fibreglass reinforced polyester was connected to the base by an intermediate steel spring and rubber dampers. The seat shell and base were coated with semigloss plastic paint in the colours white and black. For upholstery only leather was used.

Miniatures Lounge Chair & Ottoman

vitra > Styling

The Lounge Chair is one of the best known creations of Charles and Ray Eames. Created in 1956, it has become a classic in modern furniture history. The miniature version in is a coveted accessory and collectible – reproduced in exact detail with outstanding craftsmanship.

Miniatures Big Easy

vitra > Styling

Produced and distributed by Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein/Germany after an original model by One Off Ltd., London. With the kind permission of Ron Arad, London. All rights reserved. In 1988 and 1989, Arad's London »One Off« work shop created an entire series of »Big Easy« armchairs using bent sheet steel welded at the edges. The »Big Easys« were brought out as individual items or small limited series; they all had a striking basic form and inflated arms reminiscent of comics – but they differed in terms of the welding and color. In the course of time, the initially oarse, roughly welded »Big Easys« went through changes, first becoming colorful lacquered chairs with smooth surfaces and then elegant versions made of polished stainless steel. Although Ron Arad's furniture are variants on everyday things, they seem strange and irritate the eye – not only owing to the choice of material. Formally and functionally speaking, they undermine customary assumptions. You feel you have to first learn how to use them. A »Big Easy's« voluminous steel body of the »Big Easy« resembles a traditional upholstered club armchair but can hardly be associated with a sense of comfortable interiors. Ron Arad considered it an art object that could likewise be functional, but was not intended to be particularly practical.

Miniatures Collection - La Chaise

vitra > Styling

The Miniatures Collection of the Vitra Design Museum presents the most important classics of modern furniture history on a 1:6 scale and replicates the historic originals down to the smallest detail.

Miniatures B3 Wassily

vitra > Styling

Marcel Breuer was one of the most important designers of the early modern age. His biography is closely linked to the history of the Bauhaus, founded by Walter Gropius in 1919. The club chair B3, known today as »Wassily« was also created in connection with this renowned institution. lt is the first piece of seating furniture in the history of design to be made from seamless, precision-drawn tubular steel. lts transparency and visible structure are expressions of the stringent aesthetic approach that prevailed in architecture and design following World War I. Marcel Breuer replaced the massive upholstered corpus of the traditional club chair with a skeletonlike construction made out of bent steel tubing, thereby overcoming the physical weightiness of conventional seating. He exploited the elasticity of the material, complementing it with tautly stretched fabric strips of reinforced canvas for the seat and back. The B3 did not acquire the name »Wassily« until the beginning of the sixties, when the Italian furniture producer Dino Gavina purchased the manufacturing rights: Marcel Breuer had designed the armchair for the house of the painter Wassily Kandinsky, who taught at the Bauhaus from 1922 until 1933.

Miniatures Diamond Chair

vitra > Styling

Harry Bertoia, who came from Italy, originally dedicated himself to sculpting. He created a series of chairs and seats using techniques he was familiar with from gold work and sculpting with iron wire. Until 1953 he developed these ideas together with specialists from the Knoll company until they were ready for mass production. The structure of the »Diamond Chair« clearly separates the different functions of the chair: the transparent wire shell is bent out of a quadratic lattice into an organically shaped diamond like a net frozen in space, and the base of round iron embraces it like a polished diamond. Bertoia considered his furniture to resemble his sculptures and explained: »In chairs many functional problems have to be solved first, but basically chairs are also studies in space, form and metal. On close inspection it becomes clear that they are mostly made up of air. Space flows right through them.«

Akari 33N

vitra > Styling

The Akari Light Sculptures (1951) by Isamu Noguchi are a series of luminaires, handcrafted from traditional washi paper by Japanese artisans. ‘The harshness of electricity is thus transformed through the magic of paper back to the light of our origin – the sun.’ (Noguchi)

Desk Clocks - Diamond Clock

vitra > Styling

The many accessories created for the home by George Nelson include a variety of table clocks. Representing a selection of these classic designs, the Desk Clocks offer a refreshing alternative to conventional clocks. Equipped with high-quality quartz movements, the charm of these decorative timepieces is equalled by their precision.

Miniatures Aluminium Chair

vitra > Styling

The furniture making up the indoor-outdoor group goes back to an idea by Alexander Girard and Eero Saarinen, who were looking for furnishings to harmonize with the house they had just completed for Irvin Miller. Girard, one of whose interests as an architect was landscape gardening, complained that though there was a good choice of furniture for interiors, there was nothing to grace attractive patios – and no decent garden furniture. Charles Eames became preoccupied with this problem until one day during a flight he came up with the idea of an aluminium frame construction combined with a material »seat«. He wanted to develop a shape following the natural lines of the body, not however as a hard shell, but as a resilient length of material stretched between two supports which trace the body's natural form. A narrow plastic strip extending the length of the material acts as reinforcement. The material is held in place by insertion into slits on the frame's outer edge. Experiments with different covering materials later resulted in an upholstered sandwich construction consisting of two layers of »Nauga hide« with a thin filling of vinyl-foam and vinylwadding stitched at intervals of 1 7/8 inches using a high-frequency welding technique. Originally conceived for outside use, the first aluminium easy chairs to be mass produced, are today used solely in interiors.

Miniatures Womb Chair & Ottoman

vitra > Styling

The Womb Chair is regarded as one of the icons of postwar American Modernism. Designed by Eero Saarinen in 1946 and manufactured by Knoll International since 1948 (originally as Model No. 70), this armchair is the first piece of mass produced furniture in the history of design with an integrated seat shell made of fibre reinforced plastic. The expansive foam upholstered shell, which has two inset cushions for added comfort, is supported by a bent tubular steel frame. Saarinen developed the Womb Chair in close collaboration with a boat builder. His stated intention was to design a chair that would allow a variety of sitting positions and create a special feeling of relaxation and cosiness. This central design concept finds vivid expression in its name.

Slow Chair & Ottoman

vitra > Chair

The translucent sling cover of Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s Slow Chair (2006) replaces the thick cushions of traditional armchairs, resulting in a generously proportioned armchair that is both lightweight and comfortable.

Physix Conference

vitra > Chair

Physix Conference provides dynamic seating and lasting comfort, even without the mechanical adjustment options of the Physix office chair, thanks to its flexible seat frame and elastic textile cover in knit or woven fabric. The chair is an excellent choice for conference and meeting areas in which understated elegance is the key image.

Softshell Side Chair

vitra > Chair

The Softshell Side Chair, whose gentle contours are defined by its soft upholstery, provides exceptionally comfortable seating and compact dimensions: vertical ribs concealed in the upper part of the backrest offer flexibility and considerable freedom of movement – and exceptional comfort even over prolonged periods of sitting. The Softshell Side Chair has a four-legged base made of robust plastic that accentuates the understated elegance of the design. Similar in appearance, the Softshell Side Chair and Softshell Chair can be perfectly combined at the same table. Both chairs are available in the same selection of versatile fabric or leather covers in a wide choice of colours.

Unix Chair, cantilever

vitra > Chair

The practical, robust Unix Chair by Antonio Citterio is the ultimate all-rounder. The cantilever chair flexes comfortably under the user and is ideal for for visitor and conference settings.

Miniatures LCM

vitra > Styling

Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen designed a chair in 1940 with a new type of three-dimensional preshaped plywood seat for a competition held by the New York Museum of Modern Art. The chair did not go into production owing to a lack of technical know-how. It was very rare back then for plywood to be successfully pressed into a three-dimensional shape. In the years that followed, Charles and Ray Eames concentrated on developing a process that enabled plywood to be shaped as they wanted. The »Plywood Chairs« DCW (Dining Chair Wood), LCW (Lounge Chair Wood) and the versions with metal legs, namely DCM (Dining Chair Metal) and LCM were the result of these years of experimentation. In 1945 Charles and Ray Eames again took up the idea of a seat made of formed plywood without, however, coming up with satisfactory solutions. As a consequence, they rejected the idea of a multifunctional seat and decided to treat seat and back as separate, freely articulated elements that were linked with each other via a backbone – the frame. Each component is therefore reduced to a clearly defined function which it fulfills with a minimum of materials being used. The rubber »shock mounts« glued onto the wood enable the seat and back to be connected to the frame.

Miniatures Marshmallow Sofa

vitra > Styling

George Nelson is one of the most influential personalities in U.S. design after 1945. As of 1946 he was for many years head of the Design Department at the Herman Miller company, on whose behalf he engaged designers hardly known at the time, such as Charles Eames , Isamu Noguchi, and Alexander Girard. And he was also inspired by other areas of culture: along with his work as an architect, he concerned himself with ongoing sociological and artistic themes. Nelson's ”Marshmallow”-sofa must be considered one of the earliest "Pop Art" furniture designs: the transformation of a traditional sofa into a threedimensional structure made of soft, colored cushioning. The seat and back are supported by a steel construction and the unit has the shape of an axially symmetrical folded-out waffle.

Miniatures Panton Chairs (Set of 5)

vitra > Styling

Inspired by Pop Art and Pop Culture, 1960 furniture design broke with the purism of modern functionalism. The use of new materials liberated furniture from the constraints of traditional structures and made it possible for designers to play imaginatively with form and color. At international furniture exhibitions, designers like Verner Panton presented futuristic-looking interior landscapes to go with a free and easy, hedonistic lifestyle. Verner Panton wrote of his works: »I try to forget existing examples, even if they are well made, and find my own way of coming to terms with the materials. The result seldom has four legs, not because I do not want to make a chair but because working with new materials like wire mesh and polyester demands new forms.« The Panton Chair is regarded today as one of the classics of modern furniture design. It was the first chair in design history to have no back legs and be moulded in one piece entirely out of plastic. It took nearly 12 years of development work before the idea could be put into practice.

Miniatures Y-Chair

vitra > Styling

Hans J. Wegner is one of the leading representatives of traditional Danish furniture design. His work has a sound basis, namely a thorough training as a carpenter, and is rooted in a family tradition of craftsmen. He had already learned how to handle shapes and tools in his father's shoe-making shop. During his studies in Copenhagen he became familiar with masters of the Danish art of furniture-making. Wegner takes ideas from artistic joinery the world over and makes them specifically Danish. The models for his Y Chair stem from China. The Y that is the backrest resembles the natural forking of a branch. The plaited seat is a reference to the grass along the shallow shores of the Danish landscape, and is in the tradition of northwest European utilitarian chairs.

Wall Clocks - Fan Clock

vitra > Styling

With his collection of Wall Clocks (1949-1960), George Nelson conceived a wide array of timepieces, many of which have since become icons of 1950s design.

Miniatures Zig Zag Stoel

vitra > Styling

Along with the Rood Blauwe Stoel (1918), the Zig Zag Stoel is probably the best-known of Gerrit T. Rietveld's designs. Rietveld takes up Mart Stam's idea for a cantilevered chair (1926) and makes formal references to the Sitzgeiststuhl of the brothers Heinz and Bodo Rasch (1927). Although it is constructed with four individual boards, the Zig Zag Stoel represents a variation on an old theme: the chair made from a single piece of wood. It was only four years later that Rietveld succeeded in building the first cantilevered chair made with a single sheet of plywood. Nevertheless, the Zig Zag Stoel is regarded as an admirable synthesis of form, function and construction. It was produced with and without armrests, with a perforated or solid back surface, and in a child high chair version.

Miniatures Antony

vitra > Styling

The architect, engineer and designer Jean Prouvé was intent both in his architectural and design work on employing highly-advanced metal working techniques to create innovative constructions and shapes. He played an influential role in developing a construction method for architecture based on lightweight prefabricated sections, and drew amongst other things on this knowledge of aircraft and car construction. In 1947, he set up his own company Ateliers Jean Prouvé, which not only produced these lightweight elements, but also his own furniture designs. In 1955, Prouvé took part with the support of the French designer group Union des Artistes Modernes, in a competition for the furnishing of a student residence in Antony near Paris. Collaborating with Charlotte Perriand, he produced an exemplary furniture series for the leisure area, the cafeterias and a series of rooms in the student residence. His series included the chair shown here, which Prouvé had designed a similar version of for Strasbourg university as early as 1950.

Miniatures Garden Egg

vitra > Styling

The Garden Egg was originally intended to be a garden chair. At that time Peter Ghyczy was working for the synthetics manufacturer Elastogran/Reuter in Lemförde. As leader of the design department, his tasks included exploring suitable areas of application for what were then new and particularly promising synthetic materials. The most prominent and later legendary example of this work was the Garden Egg. As the name of the chair implies, this is an eggshaped object with a flat underside and a folding top. When open, the top forms the backrest. Inside there are soft cushions for comfort. When closed, the weather-proof, rain-proof 'shell' ensures that the chair can be kept outside all year round.

Miniatures Heart-Shaped Cone Chair

vitra > Styling

In the thirties and forties, Scandinavian design followed the principles of functionalism: simple structures, clear lines, a lightweight visual appearance. The desire for austerity of form was combined with a preference for wood as a natural material. It was not until the fifties that young designers like Verner Panton began to use the formal possibilities created by innovative technologies in order to liberate furniture from the constraints of tradition. Verner Panton wrote of his works: »I try to forget existing examples, even if they are well made, and find my own way of coming to terms with the materials. The result seldom has four legs, not because I do not want to make a chair but because working with new materials like wire mesh and polyester demands new forms.« The Heart Shaped Cone Chair embodies the transformation that took place in Scandinavian design in the late fifties. The purist furniture of lassical modernism was now joined by sculptural forms inspired by the new technologies. At the same time, the shape and color of the Cone Chair anticipate the »Pop Art« furniture of the sixties.

Miniatures Hill House 1

vitra > Styling

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was one of the great representatives of Art Nouveau. Together with his wife Margaret McDonald, her sister Frances, and his brother-in-law Herbert McNair, he developed an original style that set itself apart from the decorative floral style of Jugendstil. The group's geometric, almost cubist designs for furniture show the influence of Japanese spacial concepts and are distinguished by their elongated, severe forms. A typical aspect of their work is a formal scheme based on horizontal and vertical lines, occasionally combined with slightly curved linear ornamentation. Hill House 1 marks a new phase in the work of Mackintosh. The chair´s strict geometry recalls the Ladderback Chairs of the Shakers and clearly differs from the organic or feminine forms of early designs. It was made for the house of a Scottish publisher and his wife and functioned more as part of an artistic environment than as a piece of furniture for everyday use. The chair was assigned a set place in the bedroom of the couple, where it fulfilled a purely decorative function. The extended back, first used by Mackintosh in 1897, is a motif that appears repeatedly in his chairs and gives them an unmistakable quality.