Fifty Chairs That Changed the World

Design Museum Fifty

by Design Museum

Fifty Chairs That Changed the World switches the scene indoors, taking an up-close look at the chair designs-from Thonet's elegantly workaday bistro chair no. 14, of 1870, to the more outrageous creations of present-day designers-that have had the greatest impact on the look and feel of modern interiors.

Genres: Design, Art

110 pages, Hardcover

First published October 5, 2009

About the author

Design Museum is a museum founded in 1989, located by the River Thames near Tower Bridge in central London, England. The museum covers product, industrial, graphic, fashion and architectural design. In 2007 the museum was listed by The Times newspaper as number two in their top five museums of the year.

Deyan Sudjic is the current Director of the museum. He succeeded Alice Rawsthorn in 2006. Unlike most large London museums, the entrance is not free, as it is not subsidised by the UK Arts Council. For this reason it operates as a registered charity, and all funds generated by ticket sales aid the museum in putting new exhibitions together. The museum attracts 200,000 visitors annually.


Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Boy Blue · Rating 2 out of 5]

The authors are seriously on Team Eames, and certainly the Eames' output has been exceptional but I'm not sure they merited as many entries as they got.

When I think of chairs that changed the world, I think it's a gross omission to leave out the mighty Emeco 1006. The chair that won the war. It was the standard issue US Navy chair from 1940 onwards and its stainless steel pragmatism is a beauty to behold.

Emeco Navy Chair


Other chairs that didn't make the cut because they are too old or their designer isn't apparent.

Louis XV


Windsor Chair


Fermob Folding Bistro Chair


and they've got Colombo's Universale but I'm sorry it has not changed the world the way the mighty Monobloc has (even if it was the precursor to the Monobloc as some may claim).

Monobloc


This book should be renamed modern chairs that have changed the design world. Most people will not have sat on any of the chairs in the book. But I reckon nearly everyone will have sat on at least one of my examples.

[Mustafa Jamal · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's amazing how much you can tell about an era merely by a chair. Chairs are pieces of furniture in which you can see an accumulation of ideas and thoughts, a chair is an identity, it's the signature that depicts the designer's way of thinking and the costumer's style of living. it can evoke feelings of joy, comfort, firmness, confidence..etc
This short book gives you 50+ high-quality pictures of outstanding chairs with briefs about its origins.
Once you finish this book, you'll know how much creativity can be put in everyday objects.

[Anna L · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my fifth book of this '50 * that changed the world' series, and my favorite so far. A lot of whimsical and interesting chairs. I don't think any of them are actually world-changing, but it was an interesting album and the paragraphs accompanying the photos actually taught me something.