Design Research--Bentwood Chair Model 14

Bentwood Chair is the most significant piece of the product was created in early modernism. The designer is Michael Thonet who used a revolutionary process to produce his works. The Bentwood Chair is successfully produced for the costumers because the feature of the chair can satisfy most of the needs. For example, it widely used in bistros and cafes because of its ease of assembly from read-made components. Moreover, the structure of chair such as the curved line of back and the incomplete loop provides just enough support for users’ back and the shape of wood could easily be carried and picked up. The woven cane-made seat is light-weight and comfort for most of the coffee shop and restaurant as a template seat, as well as its practically：split the liquid through the hole of the seat to the floor here the staff can easily clean.

The Bentwood Chair presents a flowing curved line as the frame of the back with a round rough seat and two rear legs, and its shape perfectly fits with the human body which is 88cm overall height, 46cm seat height and 41cm depth. It provides comfort for the costumers while they sit in the coffee shop or restaurant. The structure of Bentwood Chair is combined with an incomplete loop as the back form, a curved line as a back, a woven cane-made seat and two front legs. Those components are made of the natural materials such as timber and cane, so it shows a single colour which is brown, moreover, the simple structure makes the chair looks elegant and simple. However, even it looks very easy, the producing process is not easy as it looks, it was made by a revolutionary technique which is created by his designer, Michael Thonet. He uses the heat from steam to bend the timber into a solid beechwood. Compared with the other cabinet-makers who had to carve or cut the wood to produce the frame into shape before, the new technique makes the producing process easier, more efficient and available to produce the single, sinuous curved form. In addition, it causes the large number of bentwood were made and widely used in European countries in the startsmakes1860s.

Michael Thonet is a German-born professional cabinet-makers who set up a furniture business in 1819. He start to experience the different technique to produce and he successfully make furniture which only connects different pieces of bent wooden slats by glued. This first piece of work is Bopparder Schichtholzstuhl (Boppard layer wood chair) in 1836. And then, his essential breakthrough was bending the straight wood into the curved, graceful shape by heat in the hot stem. This revolutionary technology gives him a wider range to produce elegant, lightweight, durable, and comfortable furniture in different shapes, compared with the furniture which isa produced by traditional skill are heavier and more inelegant. This breakthrough not only reduced the price of produce a piece of furniture but also improve the aesthetic and functional of work. It makes the furniture are more attractive to the costumers. In 1841, he started to work with his son the interior decoration 【fig1】of Stadtpalais Lechtenstein【fig2 3】.

In 1859, he created chair Nr.14 【fig4】which is the most well-known product that Thoet have ever made. It was created as a coffee shop chair and it produced more than 50 million pieces in that period, and it is still in production until today. In the next few year, he have created several types of chair, the rocking chair no.1【fig5】 in 1860, chair no. 18【fig6】 and 56 【fig7】 became the successful models around 19th and chair no.209【fig8】 with curved armrest was produced in 1900

【fig6】【fig7】【fig8】

As you see, the different types of chair which he made in different periods have similar and different feature. All of the chairs have curved, flowing and elegant line as the chair back form and the slightly splayed legs to support chair stably. Those features make the chair easy to be assembled and fit in most of the different environments and situations. For the different part of each chair, it depends on the purpose of the chair of produce for. For example, the chair which was created for the decoration of Stadtpalais Liechtenstein 【fig1】is luxury and the seat is made of the colourLiechtenstein fabric with a pattern of flowers and leaves which presents golden and red. This design is produced for matching with Stadtplalais Lechtenstein which is a palace. Another design which was made after Chair Model 14 is a rocking chair【fig5】, it was made for the 19th anniversary. Thonet will be producing a limited run of this bentwood classic and it became a masterpiece of craftsmanship. The rocking chair has a completely different shape of other bentwood chairs. When people force the cantilevered construction which connects the rocker rails at the bottom of the chair can slight sway the chair side to side.

Bentwood Chair was created in 1859 which is during the Art and Craft Movement.(1985-1900). During this period, artists and designers promoted to produce items through my craft technique. They attempted to against the industrial production and using craft to create products such as floral fabrics, bookmaking, weaving, jewellery and furniture. Most of the ideas which present complex forms and lines were inspired from nature with the bold colours were usually used on products as decoration. The most famous designer in this period is William Morris who is a product and texture designer. He created a Morris chair【fig9】, is an early type of reclining chair. The feature of Morris chair is entirely different fromcolours Bentwood chair, it has a reclining back and moderated high armrest with thick and strengthen chair arms to make the structure stable. The back of the chair has a slight slant back forward to make people comfortable. Moreover, Morris excelled to the texture design 【fig10】, he got the inspiration from the natural form. Leaves, flowers and complex lines are the most common element exists in his artworks with low-saturated colors such as brown, yellow and green, and those patterns usually used in his products and initial architecture【fig11 12】even in this modern era.