Organic Chair, VITRA AG

The Organic Chair – a small and comfortable reading chair – was developed in several versions for the 1940 ‘Organic Design in Home Furnishings’ competition organised by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. With its sculptural shapes, the design was ahead of the times. But due to the absence of suitable manufacturing techniques, the armchair never went into production. Not until 1950 did it become possible to manufacture and market organically shaped seat shells in large quantities, as exemplified by Charles and Ray Eames’s famous Plastic Armchair or Saarinen’s Tulip Chair.