Egg (chair)
Encyclopedia
| Egg chair | |
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| Designer: Arne Jacobsen Arne Jacobsen Arne Emil Jacobsen, usually known as Arne Jacobsen, was a Danish architect and designer. He is remembered for contributing so much to architectural Functionalism as well as for the worldwide success he enjoyed with simple but effective chair designs.-Early life and education:Arne Jacobsen was born... |
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| Date: 1958 | |
| Country: Denmark Denmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... |
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| Materials: Steel Steel Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten... frame. Fabric cover. |
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| Style/Tradition: Modernist Modernism Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society... |
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| Dimensions: 87 cm x 79 (95) cm x 107 cm | |
| Colours: originally green, (now variable in several colors) | |
The Egg is a chair designed by Arne Jacobsen
Arne Jacobsen
Arne Emil Jacobsen, usually known as Arne Jacobsen, was a Danish architect and designer. He is remembered for contributing so much to architectural Functionalism as well as for the worldwide success he enjoyed with simple but effective chair designs.-Early life and education:Arne Jacobsen was born...
in 1958 for Radisson SAS
Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, Copenhagen
The Radisson Blu Royal Hotel is a hotel in Copenhagen, that was designed by Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen for the airline Scandinavian Airlines System between 1956 and 1960. At its completion the hotel was the largest in Denmark, at 69.60 meters in height, the first skyscraper in...
hotel in Copenhagen. It is manufactured by Republic of Fritz Hansen.
The Egg was designed in a typical Jacobsen style, using state-of-the-art material.
It is believed to be inspired by Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...
's "Womb chair", from which it gains some traits. In many respects, though, the Egg is a much more complete design.
Related to the Egg is the Swan and, to some degree, many of Jacobsen's plywood chairs such as "7", the Ant, the Cigar, the Grand Prix-chair, the Pot, the Drop and the Giraffe.
The Egg was (as was the Swan) designed as a couch also - though the actual piece was thought to be a figment of someone's imagination, fed by the existence of the Swan-couch. While the Swan-couch is still in production, only a handful of Egg-couches have ever been made. A few were made for the Radisson Hotel, and a few years back, some were made as a "special edition" couch. The price was quite high - about 400.000 dkr., the equivalent of 60,000 USD.
The reason for the limited production of the Egg-couch, besides the wish for exclusivity, is the difficulty involved in making it, plus a design-"flaw"- the couch is too big to be covered by two entire cow-hides, which is only just possible with the Egg-chair. This leaves a very visible stitching down the middle of the couch - definitely not in Jacobsen spirit. This problem can, however, be solved by making the upholstery in fabric rather than leather.
According to a New York Times article, the Egg chair has also been used by McDonalds as part of a high-concept redesign of one of its restaurants in London. Furthermore The Egg is in McDonalds on Nørrebrogade in Copenhagen, amongst orther furniture by Arne Jacobsen, although some being imitations.