• Archives of design research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.177-188
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• 2002

A thousands of chairs have designed from the Victorian era to the present. Thonet's Nol4 chair in 1859, Wright's high-back chair in 1904, Ritveld's red/blue chair in 1917, Breuer's Wassily chair in 1925, Aalto's Paimio chair in 1932, Eames's DAR chair in 1948, Piero Gatti's Sacco chair in 1969, Starck's Von Volgelsang chair in 1984, Stumpf's Aeron Chair in 1992, Little's 'Coat of arms' chair in 1994 - the list of architects who have seized the opportunity to express their theories in the design of a chair is seemingly endless. Architects such as Machintosh(1868-1928), Wright(1807-1959), Aalto(1898-1976) included chairs within their artistic schemes for interiors and buildings. But as the manufacture of chairs moved away from the domain of the craftsman towards that of the industrial process, architects were also ideally positioned, with their background knowledge of engineering, to pioneer innovative chair design within the constraints of modern manufacturing technology. Beyond matters of function and structure, the fundamental worth of chairs, past or present, lies in their communication of attitudes, ideas and values. The persuasiveness of a chair depend on the clarity of its rhetoric. Chair has become an ideal medium for designers to make their visual statements and construct their individual manifestos. In chair design there is a ping-pong game played out between absurd and useful design, and this game is one way in which the design profession explores itself.