276°
Posted 20 hours ago

Chairs: 1000 Masterpieces of Modern Design, 1800 to the Present Day: 1000 masterpieces of modern design, 1800 to present

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

Nostalgia is powerful in this book as readers have said they enjoy seeing chairs that they encountered in the past. The short and concise sections of encyclopedia information are very useful for those who are studying chair and furniture design. In a classic study of human posture around the world [in the 1950s], the anthropologist Gordon W. Hewes identified no fewer than one hundred common sitting positions. “At least a fourth of mankind habitually takes the load off its feet by crouching in a deep squat, both at rest and at work,” he observed. Deep squatting is favored by people in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, but sitting cross-legged on the floor is almost as common. Many South Asians cook, dine, work, and relax in that position. Sedentary kneeling, that is, sitting on the heels with the knees on the floor, is practiced by Japanese, Koreans, and Eurasians, and also used by Muslims at prayer. An old model of a chair can be just as useful as it ever was,” he told me. “And that really sets it apart from most or at least many technologies, like, say, a smartphone, which changes every year. An old smartphone in 20 years will be just a curiosity. It won’t have any functional purpose.” (Of course, not all sitting furniture is functionally timeless. Imagine eating pasta one-handed while reclining on an ancient Roman dining couch. It helped that wealthy Romans had servants.)

Strong Focus: The books on this list represent the best options in their respective categories. The top design, DIY, and children’s stories about chairs are all represented on our list. While the topic of chairs was our first requirement, we also looked for unique applications of the subject. ESU 421-C, storage unit, designed by Charles & Ray Eames for Herman Miller Furniture Co., 1949 – 50, US I really don’t think we’re in the age of the standing desk,” Rybczynski responded. “I think it’s a fad which will come and go. People have always worked standing up—Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway.” (Treadmill desks, in Rybczynski’s book, are summarily dismissed as “silly.”) Today’s health warnings, he added, are about breaking up lengthy periods of sitting with movement, not about chairs themselves. Here I was, interviewing the architect Witold Rybczynski about his new book, an appreciation of the chair and its 5,000-year history, and I was doing it from a standing desk. Nearby, I had a perfectly tolerable chair, with snazzy features like a mesh-fabric seat, pneumatic seat-height adjustment, and polyurethane armrests. But it wasn’t looking so appealing, perhaps because the American Heart Association had just ruined chairs for me by advising people to sit less and move more, so as to avoid diabetes and cardiovascular disease. I asked Rybczynski if he felt the chair was unfairly maligned in the Age of Standing Desks and Office Exercise Balls. Through intense and self-critical teamwork, the Eames Office was the first to translate the theoretical approach of the Bauhaus into commercially successful design for a mass market. One can hardly exaggerate the relevance of Eames’s modern concept of design. In many cases the success of the pieces is based on the Office's own development and perfection of production processes for its designs.

Games

Garden Egg Chair, designed by Peter Ghyczy, manufactured by Elastogran GmbH, 1968, Lemförde, Germany The book is a deep look into the colors, shapes, and functions of chairs created throughout the 20th century. Customers really enjoy the depth of the galleries and the quality of the art, but they have said that the text could be larger. Rachel Manwill is an editor, writer, and professional nomad. Twice a year, she runs the #24in48 readathon, during which she does almost no reading. She's always looking for an excuse to recommend a book, whether you ask her for one or not. When she's not ranting about comma usage for her day job as a corporate editor, she's usually got an audiobook in her ears and a puppy in her lap.

Excellent Art: Chairs are about form and function. When you are reading about design or the history of your favorite style, pictures are paramount. We looked for books that brought visuals to life. Whether that was through high-quality pictures, excellent art, or detailed patterns, we wanted visuals to be a standout feature in every book on this list. Medal cabinet, designed by Charles Percier, made by Martin Guillaume Biennais, about 1810, Paris, France The Yatman Cabinet, designed by William Burges, painted by Edward John Poynter, made by Harland and Fisher, 1858, London, England After something else? Shop the best bedroom chairs, accent chairs, vanity chairs, the best armchair, ergonomic desk chairs for your home office and the best sofa beds for small spaces. Ahead, our full edit of the best reading chairs to elevate your reading nook endlessly.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment