British industrial designer David Irwin has created a space-saving wooden chair for Case Furniture that can be folded up and hung on a wall. Aiming to fill a gap in the market for affordable collapsible wooden chairs, Irwin designed Case Furniture’s Narin to be used in small apartments. The wooden chair features a simple silhouette made up of rounded legs, a curved backrest and seat.
“I wanted to change our preconceptions of what a folding chair is – a piece of furniture you would be proud to have on display at any time and not the emergency chair that only comes out of the cupboard on occasions,” said Irwin. “I set out to design a folding chair that didn’t compromise on aesthetics or comfort in order for it to fold.”
Once collapsed, it can be left on display leaning in the corner of the room or hung up on the wall by the backrest. Multiple chairs can be grouped and stacked to save space. As city dwellers are adapting to escalating house prices by living in smaller, more flexible spaces, the Narin chair is the latest example of the trend for furniture that makes the most of every inch of space.
The chair is lightweight – making it easy to move around – while the solid wood frame is robust enough for use in meeting, conference and waiting rooms. The seat and back are made from high-grade birch ply, solid oak or walnut veneer. The rest of the chair is solid oak, which is either finished with a natural clear lacquer or stained dark or white beforehand.
Brass fixings are contained on the underside of the chair slide along the grooves within the back legs to continue the clean lines. The Narin chair is available from a price of £265 to purchase from the Case Furniture website.
Design: David Irwin
Inspired by the constantly adapting nature of modern workshops the lightweight Narin folding chair is both easy to collapse and move around, and can be stored in condensed stacks that occupy minimal space. The solid wood frame is robust enough for use in meeting, conference and waiting rooms. David Irwin’s reimagining of the wooden folding chair gives a modern update to a concept that dates back to the ancient worlds, imbuing it with a resounding sense of quality and aesthetic appeal.
The elegant design features a smooth sweeping transition from the turned oak legs into the formed backrest, which also doubles as the mount for the pivot from where the back leg rotates. The seat and back are formed from layered birch ply with an oak veneer with an oiled finish and stainless steel fixings. The fixings contained on the underside of the chair slide along the grooves within the back legs to present a graceful silhouette with clean flowing lines, which looks as good folded away for storage as it does when open and in use.
http://www.dezeen.com/2016/09/13/narin-chair-david-irwin-case-furniture-folding-wooden/