The birth of free time, a phenomenon more recent that one could actually think of, is perhaps linked to the fertility that took the outdoor furniture design industry by storm from the second half of the Eight-Hundreds. On transatlantic ships, the newly-invented deck chairs are meant to be folded and stored away in no time in case of bad weather. In the gardens where family gatherings take place, the recliners built in wood and canvas are sat on by an intellectual audience dedicated to the ascending pastime of newspaper reading. In the warm environments of the colonies, outdoor furniture turns into a collective space inspired by the solutions adopted by army campsite seats, therefore combining essential design traits with practicality.
The absolutes: 20 of the best sunbeds
The advent of the summer is an invitation to idleness of which loungers and deck chairs are unmissable staples. A series on the most iconic seats that paved the way to the evolution of outdoor furniture.
Varnished metal, leather. Dimensions: 82x76x32cm
Polyurethane, varnish, upholstered fabric. Dimensions: 76x83x40cm. Seat height: 32cm
PVC. Dimensioni 80x65x77 cm
Polypropylene. Dimensions: 81x54x30 cm
Varnished metal. Dimensions: 63,5x96x70 cm.
Rotational moulding-printed polyethylene, also available in an outdoor version. Dimensions: 58x78x114cm.
Polystyrene microballoons, nylon. Dimensions: 140x180cm
Beechwood or birch wood
Polyethylene. Diameter: 164cm
View Article details
- Giulia Zappa
- 07 July 2021
It is perhaps because of their combination of minimal design traits and great functionality that outdoor seats have provided us with a varied series of iconic pieces, whose designers have now become identified with, ending up standing in the shade of their own creations. The Tripolina, the Adirondack Chair, the Indian chair, the Butterfly chair, but also the cast iron seats or the classic French garden loungers, represent models that show no sign of ageing, taking actually advantage of a plethora of global brands that do not seem committed to reproducing the quality of the original pieces.
Alongside the great classics, new inventions have subverted the design of outdoor furniture, often with the aid of plastic materials that contributed to a more informal conception of the time spent outdoors. It is, in fact, the human body to benefit from this new freedom in design. Take, for instance, the Garden Egg by Hungarian designer Peter Ghyczy: its low seat, nearly touching the ground, increases the direct contact with the nature and allows bodies to take positions that only a few decades earlier would have been deemed inappropriate, especially for all the women still bond to wearing skirts.
Over the last years, contemporary outdoors seats have demonstrated enviable creativity, definitely something that should be not taken for granted in the furniture industry. Take the O. rocking chair designed by Marcel Wanders for Moooi. Its ring structure, at first cryptic, soon reveals to be perfect for those who love contemplative resting with their legs up in the air. Innovation also comes as an answer to the long-lasting environmental challenge of plastic pollution. If recycled plastic is more and more present in the production chain, on some occasions it can also lead to aesthetic revolutions – like in the case of Alex by Alessandro Mendini for Ecopixel. These sorts of pieces represent a bright hope for innovation in a field of the furniture industry that, more than others, is bond to the small joys of everyday life.
Originally conceived to be used on the deck of cruise ships, the deck chair found its fortune also on the ground, becoming the epitome of beach furniture and also adapting itself to city balconies, where it has been able to awaken feelings connected to the idleness and freedom of holidays. After all, it is the structure itself to determine its (non) scope. With a structure that makes it impossible to sit with your back straight, the deck chair does hardly conjugate with work life and, on the contrary, it is perfect for resting or reading. Two activities that, in fact, tend to last longer than expected considered the impossibility to promptly stand up once hugged by its canvas.
Designed in 1855 and patented in England in 1877, the Beverly Fendy model reached a level of popularity that transcended borders and resulted in several replicas and imitations, a fact that explains the reason for its multiple names: safari chair, official chair – in the United States, in fact, it was first put on the market in 1895 advertised as a chair with military purposes – and campaign chair. Tripolina, the name by which the chair is known in Italy, comes from its use during the colonial campaign in Libia. After the war, this chair with a wooden structure, metal screws and a removable canvas seat rose in popularity, finding in Cesare Viganò and Gavina two of its most notorious producers.
Archetype of the American garden chair and among the first rustic lounge chairs, the Adirondack Chair can also be considered the epitome of intellectual property theft in the field of design. Projected by Thomas Lee, who tested it during a family holiday and finalised it in an eleven-pieces version, it was later patented under the Westport Chairs brand by Harry Bunnell, a friend of his to whom Lee had showed the chair. The chair witnessed great fame and was adopted, during the '900s, in a multitude of versions that thanks to concave seatbacks and shaped seats improved its comfort.
Inspired by a same-named English model and developed within the pervasive historical context of the colonial campaigns, the Indian Chair by Swiss designer Wilhelm Kienzle made practicality its distinctive trait. Lightweight, foldable and easily carriable, its simple traits are enhanced by the use of wood and leather. However, its originality lies in some clever details, like the metal screw that ensures the tense position of the leather armrest. Its clean lines and the great functionalism of this model would end up influencing Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand as much as Eileen Gray in the production of their seats in the early '30s.
An enduring classic of design that is still produced these days in a plethora of versions, the Butterfly chair is another symbol of informal outdoors furniture. Characterised by a varnished and soldered metal structure and by a leather or cotton canvas removable seat – reminiscent of the Tripolina – the chair has a silhouette that supports numerous body positions thanks to its diagonal axis. Originally conceived by Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan, and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy – three Le Corbusier students known as Grupo Austral – for the interiors of the Charcas building in Buenos Aires, the chair was included in the Knoll catalogue starting from 1947 and then distributed in the United States with a great commercial response. The Butterfly is another example of a commercial intuition lacking in respect towards the creators of the chair. Like witnessed by a letter written by Hardoy to Edgar Kaufmann Jr, the first person to bring two models of the chair in the United States, leaving one at the MOMA and on in his parent's house, the Fallingwater designed by Frank Lloyd Wright: "We have received, in two years, the miserable sum of $11.37".
One of the most notorious pieces of the Brazilian tropical modernism, this chaise longue with an adjustable set up enhances the beauty of local woods. The geometrical combination of a half-moon shape with the seat's zigzag trait results, also thanks to the use of Vienna straw, in synthesis of great elegance.
An icon of the '50s, now once again on trend, the Acapulco chair is characterised by hardly documented origins that nod to Mexican hammocks. They are here reproposed through a vinyl rope texture tied to an oval metal structure that is instrumental in aiding the breeze against the body during the warm seasons.
Here's a camouflage chair that opens up when used, closes itself like a rock, to then open up again under the action of the weather. The glass reinforced polyester body hides soft cushions that increase the comfort of the particularly low seat, a symbol of the informal style of the times on both sides of the iron curtain.
Pioneer of inflatable furniture, this engineer with previous experience in the automotive industry experimented the use of PVC for a series of furniture to be used both indoor and outdoor. Sold under his nom-de-plume and become popular in the early '70s, these items of design progressively went out of fashion by the beginning of the '80s, as a consequence of both the affirmation of more comfortable standards in furniture and the exponential increase of its raw materials because of the oil crisis.
A round-shaped chair that can be piled up and that retains the usual taste for sinuous geometries characterising other Panton creations, the Panto Pop was initially introduced during the famous Visiona 2, the boat exhibition promoted by Bayer during the Koln furniture fair that worked as a privileged environment for Panton's pop experiments.
A chair for contemplation, like the name itself points out, Morrison's Thinking Man's combines metal tubes and steel flat bars to find its peculiar style in the details: like the hand-drawn curved silhouette that joins the legs with the armrests that culminate in a round-shaped planchet.
An outdoors modern and colourful take on the rocking chair, the Voido is made in polyethylene and stands out for the purity of the monobloc shape, which is made even more intriguing by the equilibrium of solid and hollow surfaces.
The icon of the informal pouff of the 2000s, this big upholstered rectangle is versatile with all of our body positions and is also resistant to the challenges presented by outdoor weather.
Taking upon the codes of the metal and PVC loungers and chaise longues, Urquiola enhances the pattern’s weaving by experimenting with the chromatic juxtapositions, so to celebrate the lysergic and tropical nature of the chair.
A continuation of the research on pointillism that made the notorious Proust armchair a hit, Mendini revisits the rules of the game by proposing an answer to one of the most pressing issues for the planet's ecosystem: plastic pollution. Produced in collaboration with Ecoplex, the lounge chair is made of low-density polyethylene, of which 55% is recycled. The chair is fully recyclable thanks to the low temperature necessary for its melting. Following the precedent set by the Proust, the pixels used for the chair's pattern are also surprisingly big as they measure 24x24cm.
Symbol of a lively design that finds in assembling elements and in insubordination a creative getaway to the restrictions and the dogmas of the discipline, Transwood nods to the tradition of the garden seats in midollino offering a revolutionary collective take on them. Similarly to the Transwood series, the Transplastic line also proposes a game of reappropriation by playing upon the iconic monobloc white plastic chair.
Emblem of a two-dimension informal approach to furniture design and cleverly conceived like a minimalist, adjustable and carriable piece, the Curt necessitates of the aid of a wall to be used. The legs' antiskid grip, in fact, contributes to avoid to unexpectedly and suddenly finding yourself on the floor.
A revisitation of the circular rocking chair, O. allows to experiment multiple positions, enhancing the playful spirit of the interaction between the user and the furniture. Comfort also plays its part: O.'s internal ring comes with a soft cushioned layer so to make long seats pleasing.
A double metaphor for the imminent risk due to clinmatic change. The deckchair is named after a Pacific island submerged by advancing waters, while the sun-warmed metal of the structure proves too hot to accommodate those who intend to sit down. A warning about the harmful consequences of our flashy and unconscious consumerism.