Design Friday: The Bertoia Diamond Lounge Chair

Today I am highlighting the Bertoia Diamond Lounge Chair.

picture from knoll.com

This chair was designed in 1952 by Italian-born sculptor and designer, Harry Bertoia (pronounced: Ber-toy-uh). Bertoia's early career was that of a metal worker, and designed this chair while working for Florence Knoll Bassett and Hans Knoll. With this work, he introduced a new material to furniture design: industrial wire mesh. This chair is an extension of his art, and he approached it as such. He stated, "If you look at the chairs, they are mainly made of air, like sculpture. Space passes through them." While the chair appears to be quite delicate, it is in fact very strong (much like myself). Apparently, it is also unexpectedly comfortable. This work is one of his most well known, and proved to become an instant modern classic and a design icon.


References:
- knoll.com/designer/designer_detail.jsp?designer_id=22
- dwr.com/category/designers/a-c/harry-bertoia.do
- dwr.com/product/designers/a-c/harry-bertoia/bertoia-diamond-lounge-chair-w-seat-pad.do?sortby=ourPicks
- hivemodern.com/pages/products.php?view=sub_product&sid=466&cid=