chair

The Eames Plastic Chairs, designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1950, utilised glass-fibre reinforced polyester resin after experimenting with plywood and sheet aluminium to create a seat tailored to the human body's contours. It became the world's first mass-produced plastic chair. Beginning in 2024, Vitra will manufacture the shell from recycled plastic sourced from Germany's 'Yellow Bag' (Gelber Sack) collection program, and the chair will be fully recyclable at the end of its life.

German furniture manufacturer Tecta has created two variants of the D8P chairs, the D8P-1 swivel chair and the D8P-2 high-legged chair. The D8P was designed by German designer Martin Hirth in 2017, drawing inspiration from the Walter Gropius-designed F51 chair, with its characteristic cantilevered armrest. The new variants add a tubular steel swivel base to the original D8P chair design.

Design studio Formway designs the lightweight, stackable Lightly chair for furniture company Noho, both based in Wellington, New Zealand. The high-strength polymer frame of the Lightly chair is made from castor beans, and the seat is made from recycled waste. The design allows for efficient stacking, with 10 chairs stacking one meter high. This, together with its low weight of 6 lbs (2.75kg), reduces the shipping carbon footprint. Noho

The EN collection of tables and chairs was designed by Danish designer Cecile Manz for the Japanese furniture company Maruni, which was founded in 1928. The original EN chair, with its curved backrest and loop frame legs, was launched with a soft-coloured fabric upholstery seat. An all-wood version with a solid wooden seat was released in 2023. The chairs are manufactured in a natural finish, rusty red, dusty green, clay white, and black. The round EN table is made of maple wood with colours applied to the legs. Maruni

Milan-based architects Massimiliano Locatelli have designed the Alpina outdoor chair as part of their Editions collection. The weatherproof Alpina chairs are a re-design of the 1960s bar chair. The chairs are constructed of double U-shaped tubular iron, with back and seat support made from over 120 meters of hand-woven mountaineering rope. Massimiliano Locatelli Editions

The 'On and On' collection of lightweight and extremely durable chairs and stools is the result of a collaboration between American furniture manufacturer Emeco and London-based designers Barber & Osgerby.  The chairs and stools are manufactured from 70% rPET (waste plastic bottles), 10% non-toxic pigment, and 20% glass fibre for strength; furthermore Emeco aims to recycle used chairs to manufacture new ones. The chairs are suitable for interior and exterior use and can be stacked up to six chairs high. Photo by David Brook Shoot Studio. Emeco

Fredericia in collaboration with Portuguese-born, Copenhagen-based designer, Hugo Passos has designed the Gomo upholstered lounge collection. The Gomo chair and sofa are both designed without legs and feature reusable FSC® certified inner wooden frames, reusable mechanisms, with a cover and padding that are not glued, allowing for their  replacement. Fredericia

The Lounge Chair 005 is designed by British furniture designer Max Lamb and manufactured by Finnish furniture company Vaarnii. Max Lamb designed the furniture combining off the shelf pieces of Finnish Pine to create a solid form, and then scooping out two convex recesses, revealing the grain of the timber. The chair is made by local craftsmen in factories in Finland. Photo Jussi Puikkonen. Vaarnii

The Carl Hansen PK1 Paper Cord chair is a variant of the lightweight and stackable PK1 chair, originally designed in brushed steel and wicker, by Danish architect Paul Kjærholm in 1951. The new version is made of steel and certified paper cord, taking a skilled craftsman 15 hours to weave 180 meters of paper cord onto the seat and back of each PK1 chair. Carl Hansen

Belgian design studio Muller van Severen originally designed the Alu Chair for Anne Holtrop's Bahrain pavilion for the World Expo 2015 in Milan. The chairs are part of a collection by Belgian design label Valerie Objects, and are made of a powder coated aluminium frame with coloured polyethylene applied to the back and seat. Valerie Objects, Muller van Severen

Architects Carolina Martinelli and Vittorio Venezia, in collaboration with Milan based Alessandro Stabile, designed the OTO chair for the Italian furniture brand One To One. Inspired by the circular economy, the OTO chair is manufactured using recycled plastic and a single mould which is a third of the size of traditional moulds. The chair is transported in a  flat package and can be assembled using an interlocking system without screws or inserts. Martinelli Venezia. One To One

The iconic Zig Zag chair was an early cantilevered solid wood chair designed by Dutch designer and architect Gerrit T. Reitveld in 1934. Cassina and One Block have issued a limited edition of the chair in wood and sheet metal. The metal is saturated in three colours linked to the De Stijl movement, namely red, yellow and blue. Cassina, One Block Down

The EVO-C chair by Jasper Morrison is made of 100% recyclable polypropylene and the use of a single material gives the chair a sculptural quality. Gas injection moulding technology allows the cantilevered chair to achieve the strength and rigidity of tubular metal chairs. Vitra, Jasper Morrison

Verner Panton, the influential 20th century Danish designer, seeing the potential of plastic, designed an all-plastic one piece chair in 1959. After searching for a manufacturer for many years the chair was manufactured by Vitra in 1967. Vitra

The Kawara armchair is made of moulded plywood with a curved backrest and armrest. The chair is designed by the Paris studio of Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for the Japanese furniture brand Koyori. Photo Hiroshi Iwasaki. Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. Koyori

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby were asked to furnish the Royal Society of Arts Academy in Tipton while Vitra was working with ETH Zurich on 'dynamic sitting'. The ETH report concluded that a forward tilt sitting position had benefits including improved circulation. This led to a collaboration between Barber Osgerby and Vitra to create the Tip Ton Chair. Vitra subsequently released the Tip Ton RE which is manufactured from recycled plastic. Photo Marc Eggimann. ©Vitra. Barber Osgerby, Vitra

The 119 lounge chair is made from bentwood and cane and is designed for comfort with its wide backrest and deep, slightly tilted seat. Thonet's history dates back to 1819 when Michael Thonet set up his workshop in Boppard on the River Rhine. Thonet, Sebastian Herkner

The Achille armchair is manufactured by MDF Italia and was designed by the French architect and designer Jean Marie Massaud in 2011. The design aims to create a comfortable, enveloping and lightweight armchair. Milan-based furniture brand MDF Italia was formed in 1992 with a focus on design and simplicity. Jean Marie Massaud. MDF Italia

Snohetta and Nordic Comfort Products have redesigned Norwegian modernist Bendt Winge's classic R-48 chair to produce a chair whose body is made from 100% recycled plastic. The plastic is from the fish farming industry in the north of Norway. Snohetta. Nordic Comfort Products

Naoto Fukasawa designed the solid wood 130 chair for Thonet in 2010. The frame is made from solid wood and the backrest  in moulded plywood with or without upholstery. Thonet

The head chef and founder of Noma, René Redzepi, commissioned Studio David Thulstrup to create the ARV Chair. The design of the chain draws from Danish tradition but has a contemporary and timeless quality. The chair is manufactured by Brde. Kruger, a firm that was founded in Copenhagen as a woodturning company and dates back to 1886. Brdr Kruger

Commissioned by Canteen for their group of restaurants. This design can be seen as an evolution of the once ubiquitous post-war Utility Chair, still a familiar sight in the UK today. Klaus & Carpenter managed to reduce the chair to three main components. The powder-coated frame is made from one continuous piece of bent tube. Hidden fixings join it neatly to the plywood seat and back. Along the way they subtly updated the look of the classic archetype. The result is light weight, stackable and versatile: the Canteen Utility Chair. 2009. VG&P

The Straight Chair is George Nakashima's modern interpretation of the traditional Windsor chair. Originally designed in 1946 and reintroduced by KnollStudio in 2008 in collaboration with George Nakashima’s daughter, Mira. Using three-dimensional scanning software, the Knoll Development Group created an exact replica of the handmade original. Knoll

Hans J. Wegner designed the Wishbone chair for Carl Hansen & Søn in 1949 and it has been in continuous production since 1950. Despite the chair's straightforward appearance it takes more than 100 steps to make one and the hand woven seat consists of more than 120 meters of paper cord. Carl Hansen opened his furniture workshop in Odense, Denmark in 1908 and still manufacture in a modern factory just outside Odense. Carl Hansen

Charles and Ray Eames, the American designers who have made significant contributions to modern architecture and furniture,  conceived and developed the Aluminium Chair in 1958 for the private residence of an art collector in Columbus, Indiana (USA). The chair is constructed by stretching fabric or leather between two aluminium side members create a taut but elastic seat. This is in contrast to the seat shell. The chair adapts to the body of the sitter and is comfortable, even without elaborate upholstery. Vitra

Maarten van Severen studied architecture at the Art Academy in Ghent and produced his first furniture in 1986. In 1990 he began a collaboration with the architect Rem Koolhaus and started to concentrate on interiors. The .03 chair is designed to be unobtrusive yet comfortable and is made of  resilient polyurethane integral foam. The chair is designed to respond to the body by flexing. Maarten's collaboration with the family owned Swiss manufacturer Vitra commenced in 1996. Vitra