Vitra Armchair Red Plastic material. Dimensions: L 62.5 x Depth 60 cm x H
83 cm – Seat: L 41 x Depth 52 cm x H 43 cm – Armrests: H 68 cm. Treat
yourself to an ORIGINAL iconic piece by Vitra. An original will always hold its
value. It will stay with you for your whole life and outlast you, to be passed
on to the next generation. Swiss design house Vitra is the only company
authorised to manufacture Charles & Ray Eames products for Europe: if you
own an Eames product manufactured by Vitra, you can be sure it’s an original.
Charles and Ray Eames are two of the most important designers of the 20th
century. The first plastic chairs to be mass-produced, the Shell Chairs by
Charles and Ray Eames are among the major creations in the history of furniture.
“Making the best available to the many is how Charles and Ray Eames described
one of their main aims as furniture designers. Of all their creations, none came
closer to this goal than the Plastic Chairs. The idea of creating a one-piece
moulded seat shell, adapted to the human body, was the focus of this pair of
designers for many years. After experimenting with plywooden and aluminium
sheeting in the 1940s without producing satisfactory results, their search for
alternative materials led them to glass-fibre-reinforced polyester resin. This
material, which was completely unheard-of in the furniture industry at the time,
allowed moulded shells to be developed and refined up to mass production. This
one-piece, organically shaped shell turned out to be a much-admired innovation
at a time when chairs were, for the most part, composed of a seat and a back.
Fibreglass offered the added benefit of a pleasant feel and a perfectly moulded
shell for extraordinary comfort.After their initial presentation at the Low Cost
Furniture Design competition organised by the Museum of Modern Art in 1948, the
Plastic Armchair (A-shell) and Plastic Side Chair (S-shell) were introduced to
the market in 1950, as the first mass-produced plastic chairs. With the launch
of this revolutionary creation, Charles and Ray Eames introduced a new type of
furniture that has since spread around the world: the multifunctional chair
whose shell can be combined with a wide variety of different bases. As early as
1950, Charles and Ray Eames presented a whole series of different bases with a
remarkable design such as the Eiffel Tower base – a filigree steel wire
structure with an unparalleled combination of lightness in its form and
stability in its structure. For the Dining Height Armchair Wood Base (DAW),
Charles and Ray Eames combined the organically shaped seat shell with a
four-legged wooden base. The combination of plastic and wooden gives the classic
creation a warm feel and relaxed charm. Despite its compact dimensions, this
chair offers pleasant comfort even for tall users. Its iconic shape is
immediately identifiable. Today, Vitra manufactures DAW chairs by Charles and
Ray Eames with two different shells: the Eames Plastic Chairs have a
polypropylene shell while Eames Fiberglass Chairs have a glass-fibre-reinforced
polyester resin shell just like the first models. Like the original armchair,
this fibreglass version has a lively texture: the slightly irregular surface
material has clearly visible fibres that give it an almost natural look. Due to
the high quality of Vitra originals, the manufacturer offers a 10-year guarantee
(register your product on the dedicated website to benefit from the extended
warranty).
