Have A Seat

Like  haute  couture fashions at a designer runway show that are meant more to inspire than to be worn, architects and industrial designers often choose form over function while challenging traditional norms. In Carnegie Museum’s Heinz Architecture Centers exhibit, “Influencers: The Pritzker Architecture Prize”, the simple chair has been re-imagined by three award-winning architects.

The Nee Side Chair, produced in 1988 by architect Thom Mayne, is constructed from cast aluminum, steel, and perforated steel. Mayne founded the Post Modern design group, Morphosis, believing that anything which is designed should reference the materials and culture of it’s time. The Née Side Chair, a new interpretation of an auditorium chair,  uses materials that are industrial or technical in appearance.

Robert Venturi’s And Denise Scott Brown’s Queen Anne Chairs, 1984, demonstrate the duos interest in looking at historical styles in a new way, while making furniture that could be cheaply and easily manufactured. The ornate carving of the traditional Chippendale style has been flattened in the Post Modern aesthetic, and produced from plywood and plastic laminate.

Often using non-traditional materials in his buildings and furniture designs,  Architect Frank Gehry used corrugated cardboard for  tables, chairs, and ottomans. Little Beaver Chair and Ottoman, 1991,  consists of layers of corrugated  cardboard with gnawed edges.

 Gehry later developed a collection of bentwood chairs and tables, including the Power Play armchair (1994). A Canadian and life-long hockey fan, each piece was given a hockey inspired name.

Would these chairs be a comfortable place to relax and take a break? Some of these pieces are still in production-but don’t try out these ones! They are well marked-“do not sit!”