Topic
Mid-Century Modern
The Eames Lounge Chair went on sale through Herman Miller in 1956, built from molded plywood shells and leather cushions, and Vitra makes it for Europe today. Mid-Century Modern follows the furniture and products that came out of the years after the Second World War, when new materials and factory methods met a taste for plain lines. Arne Jacobsen designed the Egg chair for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen in 1958, and Fritz Hansen still produces it. Isamu Noguchi's glass-topped coffee table went into production with Herman Miller in 1947, and his Akari lamps followed in 1951. Dieter Rams designed the 606 Universal Shelving System in 1960, and Vitsoe still sells it. Fritz Haller's USM system from 1965 arrived late in the period but shares its logic. Pierre Jeanneret's teak and cane chairs for Chandigarh, made in the 1950s and 1960s, became collector pieces decades later. Each article explains construction and materials and the markings that separate a licensed piece from a reproduction, which matters when a fake Eames chair can look convincing in a photo.
Stories
Design4 min read
The Egg Chair Was Built for a Hotel Lobby
Arne Jacobsen designed a Copenhagen tower down to the ashtrays. The chair he put in its lobby outlived almost everything else in the building.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Design4 min read
Dieter Rams and the Ten Principles of Good Design
The Braun design chief who made less feel like more. What his ten principles actually ask of an object, and why they still shape the gear you buy.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Design4 min read
Isamu Noguchi's Coffee Table Started as a Grudge
A pilfered model, a three-legged insult and a summer trip to Gifu gave Isamu Noguchi his two best-selling objects. Both are still in production.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Design4 min read
The Panton Chair Has No Legs and No Seams
One sweep of plastic, held up by nothing but its own curve. It took Verner Panton a decade to find a factory and Vitra five materials to get it right.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Travel4 min read
Copenhagen Design Guide: Hospitals, Hotels and Room 606
A design museum in an eighteenth-century hospital, a hotel built down to the cutlery and a square that has sold furniture since 1925.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Design4 min read
The Eames Lounge Chair, 1956 to Now
Molded plywood, soft leather and a TV debut in 1956. How Charles and Ray Eames reinvented the club chair, and how to spot the real thing today.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Design5 min read
Pierre Jeanneret's Chandigarh Chairs and the Fakes Problem
Government office chairs from a planned Indian city became a luxury status object. Then came the scrap auctions, the reconstructions, the replicas and the police.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
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