Egg (chair)

Egg chair
The Egg Chair
Designer Arne Jacobsen
Date 1958
Materials Steel frame, fabric cover
Style / tradition Modernist
Sold by Fritz Hansen (Denmark)
Height 107 cm (42 in)
Width 87 cm (34 in)
Depth 79–95 cm (31–37 in)

The Egg is a chair designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1958 for the Radisson SAS hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is manufactured by Republic of Fritz Hansen.

The Egg was designed in a typical Jacobsen style, using state-of-the-art material.

It is believed to be inspired by Eero Saarinen's "Womb chair", from which it borrows some traits.

Related to the Egg is the Swan chair and, to some degree, many of Jacobsen's plywood chairs such as "7", the Ant, the Cigar, the Grand Prix-chair, the Pot, the Drop and the Giraffe..

The Egg (like the Swan) was also designed as a couch. While the Swan couch is still in production, only a handful of Egg couches have ever been made. A few were made for the Radisson Hotel, and a few years back, some were made as a "special edition" couch. The price was quite high—about 400 000 DKK, the equivalent of roughly 75 000 USD.

The reason for the limited production of the Egg couch, besides the wish for exclusivity, is the difficulty involved in making it, plus a design flaw: the couch is too big to be covered by two entire cow-hides, which is only just possible with the Egg-chair. This leaves a very visible stitching down the middle of the couch. This problem can, however, be solved by making the upholstery in fabric rather than leather.

According to an article in The New York Times,[1] the Egg chair has also been used by McDonald's as part of a high-concept redesign of one of its restaurants in London. Furthermore, The Egg is in a McDonald's restaurant in Nørrebrogade, Copenhagen, among other furniture by Arne Jacobsen, although some are imitations.[2]

It was used as the diary room chair in the first UK series of "Big Brother".

The newly renovated Terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport features the Egg in its boarding area.[3]

Now there are hundreds of different types of egg chairs and hanging egg chairs inspired by Arne Jacobsen's design.

Hanging Egg Chair

Hanging Egg Chair. Designer:Nanna Ditzel (1959)

The Hanging Egg Chair was designed by Danish furniture designers Nanna Ditzel and her husband Jørgen Ditzel in 1957 in Denmark and launched in 1959 in cooperation with the wicker company R. Wengler in Copenhagen. Since 2012 it is distributed by Sika Design..[4] The egg-shaped basket seat is made of woven natural rattan and suspended by a metal chain from above. Nanna Ditzel incorporated the minimalist visual elements that characterized the Scandinavian design in the 1950s and combined it with the natural look of rattan.[5] The chair illustrates the soft and feminine approach the two Danish designers are widely recognized for.[6]

Nanna and Jørgen Ditzel received the Lunning Prize in 1956 and worked together until Jørgen Ditzel’s death in 1961.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "To Woo Europeans, McDonald's Goes Upscale", The New York Times, 2007-08-25 .
  2. ↑ "Restauranten på Nørrebros Rundel", McDonald's Danmark (in Danish), Danish Wikipædia .
  3. ↑ "Renovation of a Terminal, Keyed to San Francisco", The New York Times, 2011-04-12 .
  4. ↑ Sika Design
  5. ↑ Hanging Chairs
  6. ↑ Worldcat
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