A chair is one of the most important pieces of furniture, usually designed for one person to sit on, and consists of one or more legs, a flat or slightly inclined seat, and a backrest. They can be made of wood, metal or synthetic materials and can be padded or upholstered in different fabrics and colors.
Chairs differ in design. A rocking chair has an armrest that is fixed to the chair, the backrest is upholstered and has a mechanism to lower the back and lift the legs into place, and the rocking chair has legs fixed to two long curved bars.
History of the first chairs?
In his new book Now I Sit Me Down, architect Witold Rybczynski traces the history of chairs. Look closely at what you’re sitting on, he says, and you’ll learn about trends in architecture, design, culture and society.
When Rybczynski sat down to write, he wrote on an old wooden swivel chair he bought at a flea market 40 years ago. It leans, it leans, and it’s old. “This isn’t just me,” he said. “This is also the person who owned it before me. The wear and tear on an old chair is pretty good.”
Old chair – really old. Rybcynski believes that the oldest type of chair is probably the folding chair – the nomadic tribes of ancient China, for example. “There are times when you want to go for a walk and then you want to sit down,” says Rybczynski. Who knew your beach chair had such a backstory?
The earliest records of chairs appear in Egyptian tomb paintings and ancient Greek art. The oldest representation Rybczynski can find is a Greek sculpture from 3,000 BC, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It shows a harpist sitting on a simple four-legged stool. “We call it the kitchen chair,” says Rybczynski.
History of the first chairs?
“What’s striking about the Greeks,” explains Rybczynski, “is that the chairs become very democratic very quickly.”
Just looking at the pictures – “there are women in chairs, gods in chairs, musicians – so it’s clear that it’s a tool used by many people,” he said.
But sitting democracy did not last long. Fast forward to Europe in the Middle Ages and most people don’t have a chair. “They just sit on whatever’s around because they can’t afford it,” says Rybczynski. “You have to be really rich to buy something like a chair. If they’re lucky, they sit on a couch – that’s about the same height as the person sitting.”
Michael Thonet, the German-Austrian furniture maker who made this coffee chair, has also simplified the wood bending process.
The body of a chair has only a few parts: the legs, sometimes the arms, the seat, and the back. It sounds simple, but it’s not. “In a way, they are like small buildings because they have to be beautiful but also practical,” says Rybczynski. “They really have to be very well structured.”
In his book, Rybczynski writes about various architects and designers who helped shape the history of the chair. In the 1830s, Austrian-German furniture maker Michael Thonet invented the Vienna chair – you’ve probably seen these chairs in coffee shops and cafes. Thonet has simplified the wood-bending process, says Rybczynski, and turned chair-making into an industry.
He also celebrates the work of husband and wife team Charles and Ray Eames, who started designing chairs in the 1940s. They designed shiny, smooth cases made of wood or a plastic used. in the lining of military helmets. Eames explained in a 1956 NBC interview: “The goal was to take a material that was a high-performance material developed during the war and try to make it available to households at a non-military price. .
History of the first chairs?
Eames revolutionized chair manufacturing. From the airport to the office, they came up with innovative designs and enabled mass production. “They switched the furniture from a traditional look to something very modern,” says Rybczynski. Using materials like metal and plywood, they created chairs that are still popular today.
The “last descendant” of the Eames chair is the one-piece plastic chair – yes, cheap, stackable garden chairs. They may not be pretty, but they solved a major structural problem. “The challenge with chairs has always been articulation,” says Rybczynski. “Because, when you sit in the chair, the joints move and eventually they loosen and the chair starts to wobble. The plastic chair is a mold so it will come loose.”
Plastic seats can be quite difficult to damage. Designer Andrew Morrison notes that TV footage often shows intact plastic chairs scattered around after bombings. “The wooden chairs will never survive the explosion, they will break to pieces,” he said.
Rybczynski explains that the popularity of the plastic chair (there’s a whole website devoted to that subject) is due to the “monolithic” mold. “The whole process, from the tablet to the finished chair, takes less than a minute,” he wrote. “Since the raw materials are relatively cheap, the production costs are extremely low.”
Plastic chairs may just be the latest chapter in the long history of chair development. After all, Rybczynski points out: “Sitting problems are common.”
What materials are chairs usually made of?
A chair is a piece of furniture usually made of wood or plastic. It can also be made from fabric, metal, wool, and stone. There can be many different variations of chairs such as stools, rocking chairs, gaming chairs, folding chairs, and armchairs. There are also different types of chairs, those with fabric are often called couches, while those without fabric are often called couches. There are also less common chairs such as bean bag chairs and rocking chairs.
What types of chairs are commonly used?
Various types of chairs have emerged through the ages, some based on formal usage, others based on domestic needs, and some based on needs in the workplace or different professions.
Office chair
An office chair is a chair used by employees in an office. Modern office chairs are usually adjustable and have wheels. Wheels are attached to the legs of the chair to make it easier to move.
Dining room chair
Dining room chairs are a specific type of design, used around the dining table. It can be found in most casual residential homes and can also appear in formal settings, such as any formal event or reception that includes a meal or party. solemn reception.
Working chair
An ergonomic chair is a specialized type of chair, tailored to the needs of a particular industry or context. For example, a designer chair would be used for designers who sit on a high easel; it will usually have extra height.
Rocking chair
Some chairs have two curved wooden bands (also known as seesaws) attached to the bottom of the legs. These are called rocking chairs.
Classify chairs by characteristics
Swivel chair: The chair can rotate around the axis.
Stool chair: A chair without a backrest and arm rests on either side.
Arm chair: A chair with a backrest and arm rests on either side, usually with soft cushions.
Folding chair: The chair can be folded.
Bench chair: The chair has a large size for many people to sit.
Staff chair: Including swivel and non-rotating type, is the normal type of staff chair.
Waiting chairs (also called waiting benches): Chairs arranged in rows of two or more, used for banks, hospitals or public waiting areas.
Conference chairs: Chairs arranged in rows with 2 or more seats, used in cinemas, cinemas, conferences and seminars.
Office chairs: Specialized for working offices, including: swivel chair, recliner, folding chair, …
Classify chairs by use and function
In use, people often call chairs according to their function of use: waiting chair, office chair, train chair, bus seat, electric chair, throne (seat for kings), walker chair, swivel chair, folding chair
The function of the Chair?
Chair – a very familiar and indispensable item in human living space, not only used to sit but also help people rest when their legs are tired.
Since ancient times, the chair has occupied an important position in human life. During the dynasties of kings from East to West, the chair was decorated and decorated with motifs to increase authority.
Even the most powerful were allowed to sit in high-backed chairs with many decorative touches. The less powerful ranks have only low-backed or low-backed chairs.
In those ancient times, the materials used to create the chair were not very rich, maybe it was just stone and wood.
The chair today is very common in living spaces, from office chairs, sofas in the living room, dining table chairs, to wooden chairs on the porch…
In the workspace or the parliament, the chair is also an item that shows the position and rank of the person using it.
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