The Best Chairs Ever Designed!

[mrpercysnodgrass]

This article is in todays Telegraph.

I'm surprised they did not include any Charles Rennie Mackintosh chairs.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/int ... me=2445020

 

[MickCheese]

Some of those look exceedingly uncomfortable.

Mick

 

[deserter]

Number 11 is only one I could almost like, the rest I'm afraid look either ugly or unfit for use as a chair to me.


~Nil carborundum illegitemi~

 

[Jacob]

Is this a new edition of 1000 Chairs?
Bogger I'l have to buy another copy!
It's an excellent book covering a big range. Much better than the 500 Chairs series (..cabinets, ...tables) which are a relatively dismal trudge around the post modern.

 

[Graham Orm]

Who chose the chairs to put in it, a primary school teacher? How can molded plastic be the best design ever? :roll:

 

[bugbear]

Some of those look exceedingly uncomfortable.

Mick

I think most of them are designed to be looked at, or to impress neighbours, or to be part of "house beautiful" shoots.

Sitting - not so much. Chair shaped sculptures in the main.

BugBear

 

[Dangermouse]

Some of those look exceedingly uncomfortable.

Mick

I think most of them are designed to be looked at, or to impress neighbours, or to be part of "house beautiful" shoots.

Sitting - not so much. Chair shaped sculptures in the main.

BugBear

Totally agree. Some of them look like and would give you, a big pain in the ***, thats for sure. :shock: :lol:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Who chose the chairs to put in it, a primary school teacher? How can molded plastic be the best design ever? :roll:

Much depends whether it's designed to fit your arrse or impress your neighbours, I suppose.

 

[Jacob]

Modern design worries people doesn't it? It was all modern once you know!

 

[Sawyer]

How can a list with such a title exclude anything from the eighteenth century :?: I know taste is subjective, but ....

 

[MickCheese]

Recently I was watching an episode of the antiques roadshow where they were falling over themselves for a Francis Bacon stool..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mj2y/features/stool

Now maybe it's me and I do realise taste is personal but this just looks like a forerunner of an ikea piece.

Is it just me or is this a case of the Emperors New Clothes?

Mick

 

[Jacob]

The book is '1000 chairs', not 'The Best Chairs Ever Designed'.
They say: "Our selection for this survey of chairs begin in the early 19C because it was, with the advent of industrialisation, that the first attempts were made to shift the chair from crafted object to that of the designed product" which, they argue, leads to the Modern Movement.
The intro to the book is very interesting (in the old edition, I don't know about the new one). The theme is 'connections' - how designs relate to one another as they develop.

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

Some of these are pure design, an art object, to be looked at and talked about, others are a solution to needs like the Thonet ( silent 'h' ) chairs, which were the first truly mass produced chairs that were both functional and cheap which is why just about every cafe in the world was furnished with them. Or the plastic stacking chairs, where would schools and institutions be without them. Others attempt to be both beautiful and functional and I think succeed like the Pierre Paulin chair and the Erik Gunnar Aspiund ones. Not that I have sat in them but they look comfy. One chair not in this article which looks great but has to be one of the most uncomfortable chairs I have ever sat in is the mackintosh chairs made for the Willow tea rooms in Glasgow, it was like sitting in a correction chair.

 

[Jacob]

Recently I was watching an episode of the antiques roadshow where they were falling over themselves for a Francis Bacon stool..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mj2y/features/stool

Now maybe it's me and I do realise taste is personal but this just looks like a forerunner of an ikea piece.

Is it just me or is this a case of the Emperors New Clothes?

Mick

You have missed the point - it's explained in your linked page: "Although the stool looks very ordinary in many ways, it has great historical importance......." in other words it's not about the design at all.

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

How can a list with such a title exclude anything from the eighteenth century :?: I know taste is subjective, but ....

The book actually covers designs in chairs from 1800 but the journalist has obviously just chosen 20th century examples.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Mick - no, it's not just you.
Jacob -yes, if it were designed by Fred Bloggs down the road, it would be historically unimportant. It only has value because of who designed it, not because it's neccessarily any good.

 

[Modernist]

If the illustations shown are typical I think it is wrongly titled. Chairs are the holy grail of furniture design and there are numerous stunning examples out there. Most of them IMHO hail from Denmark.

 

[Dangermouse]

If the "right" person farted, some people would be expressing their admiration for such an amazing piece of nebulous art and design

 

[RogerBoyle]

If the "right" person farted, some people would be expressing their admiration for such an amazing piece of nebulous art and design

unfortunately that is so true LOL

 

[Mike Wingate]

This must be a new edition with a new front cover of the old 1000 chair book.