Iconic Chairs Worth Knowing About.

Beautiful places to put your bottom.

“Styles may come and go; good design is a language, not a style.”

– Massimo Vignelli.

Consider a chair:

Since the dawn of time, humans have enjoyed sitting. While there was (and still is) a certain amount of ground and floor sitting done, there is even more proof of humans choosing to sit on or in something. Whether it’s a log, a stone, an anthill or a lap, we have been placing our bums on things for centuries.

Sitting ON something is a necessary part of our everyday lives. But that doesn’t mean we give it much thought.

As with everyday architecture, which we often only notice if it is done badly, we also only give a thought to where we are sitting if the chair is lacking in some way. A well designed, comfortable and easy to use sitting spot doesn’t often make it into our conversations, even though it is such a fundamental part of our daily lives.

Think about it – car/bus/train seats, office chairs, sofas in front of TV’s, dining room chairs. Living rooms, restaurants – so much of our lives is lived in the sitting position.

Let’s talk about famous chairs.

Adirondak

This staple of vacation houses in the USA was designed to provide stable and comfortable seating on hilly or uneven terrain such as sand dunes and sloping lawns. Originally made from wood, many other versions of injection moulded or recycled plastic now exist, but the simplicity and functionality of this chair means it will be stick around for a while. Broad armrests and a sloped seat mean they are perfect for lazy afternoons indoors or outdoors, with your favourite drink at hand.

Barcelona

Possibly one of the most famous chairs, this modernist chair design has been around for nearly a century. Designed for the 1929 Barcelona International Convention, this chair was meant to be comfortable enough for royalty, without selling out on its German designer, Mies van der Rohe’s quintessential minimalist Bauhaus style.

Beanbag chairs (and inflatable furniture)

Long before we had the luxury of Vetsak and Happysak, we had brightly coloured pleather beanbags lined up and ready for sale next to roads and robots. If you were lucky to have one, you were part of the “cool” crowd. ( I was not – despite numerous requests. I wanted the lime green one, but would also settle for a purple.)

If a bean bag wasn’t for you, you could also celebrate your teenage edginess with inflatable furniture.

(Trigger warning to all 90’s kids: Just like bell bottoms and super low rise jeans are making a comeback, so is inflatable furniture according to Architectural Digest!)

White plastic chair (Monobloc)

Possibly one of the most prolific chairs in the word, the white plastic chair comes in many varieties, but they all fit the same criteria. Made from a single piece of plastic, usually white, but also available in other colours, this chair is lightweight, sturdy and, most importantly can be stacked on top of each other for easy storage.

“Notoriously cheap to manufacture, the seat’s origins are murky: Some trace it to designs by Canadian designer D.C. Simpson in 1946, others to Joe Colombo’s 1960s Chair Universal 4867, and still others credit French engineer Henry Massonnet’s 1972 Fauteuil 300. In all likelihood, the chair had many starting points—just as it has thousands of iterations today.”

Source: House Beautiful

Friend’s Central Perk Sofa

Tufted, velvet, burnt orange? What’s not to love?! The iconic sofa, (with or without Phoebe, Racel, Monica, Ross, Joey and Chandler sprawled on (or around it) made it’s way into our homes via M-Net every Wednesday night for a very long time (10 seasons to be precise). Indisputably part of the Zeitgeist of Gen X, Millennials and even now, thanks to reruns, Gen Z, no list of famous seats will be complete without mentioning this baby.

Liked this list? Read on!

House Beautiful

Elle Decor

Cranbrook Art

Home Crux

There is more to a chair than sitting

It turns out chairs are a bigger deal than we thought. Crucial to our comfort and an integral part of our everyday lives, don’t just take them for granted anymore. Next time you have a seat, spare a thought to those designers, architects and artists who tirelessly work to give us beautiful places to put our bottoms.

Also read our article on how to embrace your geek décor.