Egg (chair)

The egg ( Ægget ), also known as Egg Chair is a 1958 developed by Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen chair. Together with the swan chair designed by Jacobsen egg for the lobby of his Gesamtkunstwerk, the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. For the production, the designer turned to the furniture manufacturer Fritz Hansen S / A, which produces all his chairs since 1935.

Design and construction

The design of the chair contains no straight lines, composed exclusively of curves and is described as organic. The backrest is high and is wider than the classic wing chairs. A similar idiom is also found in other seating designs by Jacobsen from this period, such as the chairs of the series 7 Matching the chair that supports the internal number 3316, Jacobsen designed an ottoman in the same year. Also, a sofa from the egg was developed and produced for the SAS Royal Hotel. Unlike the Swan did not result in a series production. A small quantity of the egg came later sofas on the market at a price of about € 50,000. The prototypes made ​​Jacobsen of plaster in his garage by hand.

The design of the chair is based on a steel frame supporting the seat shell of glass fiber reinforced polyurethane and is upholstered with cold foam. A manufactured from die-cast aluminum cross -like foot - in him the serial number is stamped - closes the revolving chair at the bottom. In the rotary joint, an adjustable spring pressure in the tilt adjustment is later been installed, which is changed by a lever on the aluminum bottom of the seat shell in the back pressure. Leather and fabrics in different colors are used as a reference for surface and stitched into the upholstery of the manufacturer by hand. In this case, the outer skin from a single piece. The seat is - unlike the original models - from an inlaid cushion. Overall, the chair is 107 cm high, 86 cm wide, 79 cm deep and weighs 18 kg.

Reception

The chair is considered a design classic and was included in the collections of design museums worldwide, including the Design Museum Danmark in Copenhagen and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Early originals are traded at art and antique auctions. On the documenta III in 1964 was the chair with other works of Arne Jacobsen part of the department of Industrial Design.

In the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, the chair continues to be used in the lobby and also in one room. Following a renovation, only the 606 rooms has been preserved with a green egg in the original design. The room was put together by Zdenek Felix on behalf of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art exhibition entitled Arne Jacobsen. Absolutely modern copies the 100th birthday and on display at various locations in Europe, including the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg.

The American fast food chain McDonald's hired a designer to develop new concepts for their branches in England and Denmark. This is used, inter alia the egg. After McDonald's next to the originals and replicas - in England the period of protection for the design is expired - used, Fritz Hansen announced the collaboration.

The chair was not only the model for the work of other designers as well as for fakes, which are offered at much lower prices than the originals by Fritz Hansen.