Famous Furniture that’s mattered

Furniture regularly determines our mood in a space, with ramifications for our wellbeing, cognitive performance, as discussed in this article.

In “The 25 Most Defining Pieces of Furniture from the Last 100 Years,” Nick Haramis, Max Berlinger, Rose Courteau, Kate Guadagnino, Max Lakin, and Evan Moffitt (2024, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/t-magazine/furniture-design-office-chair-shelving-unit.html), report on the iconic, era defining pieces of furniture, as identified by Rafael de Cardenas, Daniel Romualdez, Paola Antonelli, Julianne Moore, Katie Stout, and Tom Delavan. To be considered, pieces needed to have been made (at least as a prototype) and be at least minimally functional. Also, “In each case, the objects represented more than comfort or utility; every innovation is, in its own way, a historical artifact — a response to the prosperity or unrest into which it was born or a proposal for a more efficient world, maybe a better one.”

Pieces of furniture ion the list included the Sacco Chair (1968, Gatti, Paolini, and Teodoro, “considered the original beanbag”), Chaise Longue a Reglage Continu (1928, Le Corbusier, Jeanneret, and Perriand, “among the first ergonomically conscious pieces of furniture ever manufactured”), Slab 1 Coffee Table (circa 1951, Nakashima), Ergon Chair (1976, Stumpf), 606 Universal Shelving System (1960, Rams), Louis Ghost Chair (2002, Starck), Side Chair, (1952, Eames and Eames, “a simple shell mounted on an Eiffel Tower lattice of wire spindle legs”), and the ubiquitous Parsons Table (1930, designer unknown) and Monobloc Chair (20th Century, designer unknown).