No. 14 chair_Photo: http://www.didatticarte.it

What is it?

The Thonet chair No. 14 was created by Michael Thonet, carpenter carver born in Boppard on the Rhine in 1796; he can be considered to all effects designer, as he invents a new technique to solve its problems with more ease without forgetting the aesthetics that can arise from that technique. The chairs of that time were made of many pieces of wood, strips or sticks put together so many interlocking or glue. Every piece of wood had to be worked over, stuck and glued to form the chair; There were the four pillars of the legsthe backrest, the seat, the strips of reinforcement to keep the legs together and all the rest. These are economic chairs and not luxury ones, carved and built for the usual elite.

The design

Michael Thonet thought that maybe it could invent a simple chair, made without waste, lightweight and elegant; examining the furniture of rattan curved, perhaps, it occurred to him to bend the beech wood sticks round section, soaked with steam (thinking that when the branches are fresh can be folded and when they are dry will break) and then place them in a mold and dried by evaporating the moisture absorbed. In this way, the sticks would maintain the desired shapes. Thonet realized that by bending the wood could combine several functions: the hind feet and the backrest could be one piece that did not need glue or joints. The seat, instead of doing it square, he made it round in one piece instead of four pieces to fit together. In this way his first chair was built in just six pieces and held together with only ten screws; in addition there was the composition of the seat which is made of sixteen pieces.

The pieces of the no. 14 chair_ Photo: http://www.didatticarte.it

The year was 1859, when the new chair, model no.14 was realized; this chair is constructed still in the same way until recently, have been produced over seventy million copies. The chair is well designed and built cheaper, more practical, lightweight and elegant for formal consistency of the material, the technology used, without any forcing decorative addition to the forms born from the technique. With the same design principle Thonet produced a series of chairs, stools and chairs that are of a formal consistency model.

No.14 chair exhibited at MOMA of New York and at Vitra Museum in Germany_ Photo:www.didatticarte.it

A Thonet chair No. 14 today is a cultural symbol that is exhibited in museums and can also be found inside the houses. On the Thonet chairs, were also written a number of books in the world.

Books that debate the Thonet chair No. 14_Photo:www.didatticarte.it