Chair Anatomy: Design and Construction

A detailed exploration of how more than 50 of the most iconic chairs from the last 150 years were conceived and made – the design principles, the material selection, the manufacturing processes, and the designers and architects behind them

Chair Anatomy reveals in photos and illustrations the form and the construction details – the anatomy – of more than fifty chairs made in the last 150 years. In reducing chairs to their constituent parts, the book gets to the heart of each design: how pieces are designed and produced to fit together; why a certain material imparts a certain quality, functional advance or comfort level; and how the chair’s structure can withstand stress while being elegant and economical to produce. It also introduces the designers behind these chairs, their backgrounds and their routes to creating the chairs.

‘Exploding’ these chairs gives insight into the careful and detailed thinking that has gone into a piece of furniture that we take for granted, and offers designers and students, in a single reference source, a truly nuts-and-bolts perspective on masterpieces of design.

Contents List

Chair Index • The Chairs • Biographies • Glossary & Bibliography

About the Author

James Orrom is Professor for Product and Furniture Design at the Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences in Germany. He co-founded Umlauf & Orrom Studio for Industrial Design in 1987, producing furniture, film equipment, porcelain, glassware and other products for such international clients as BMW, Siemens and Villeroy & Boch.