In the footsteps of Charles and Ray Eames: The Jill plywood chair by Alfredo Häberli

Charles and Ray Eames were ahead of their time. But they were equally caught up in it. More precisely, in the technical possibilities that were available to them. One design that never came to fruition for this reason is a wooden version of their famous Plastic Chair. As early as the early 1940s, the pair of designers developed a process for the three-dimensional deformation of plywood. Along with a leg brace for wounded war returnees, their Plywood Elephant is considered to be the most technically challenging design that they realized in plywood. However, a wooden seat shell made from a single piece like that of the Plastic Chair eluded them.

This is where Alfredo Häberli comes in. At a young age, the Zurich designer acquired an original Eames leg prosthesis and was fascinated by its realization. When Rolf Fehlbaum approached him to develop a project for Vitra, his mission was immediately circumscribed: He would use state-of-the-art plywood technology to fill the gap in the Eames' palette.

In a patented process, the individual layers of the seat are bent so that they meet in the middle. There, a smooth transition between the seat and the back is created on the outer sides, while a round recess penetrates the center of the shell, giving it a high degree of flexibility and comfort. The underframes also follow the design language of their historical predecessors, yet with their more delicate proportions and bold colors they clearly express that this is a contemporary design. nk

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